Did Jimmy Kimmel make an "expectant widow" joke about Melania Trump after the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD)? No, that's not true: Kimmel made the joke on his late night show on April 23, 2026. He was making a mock speech about the WHCD and was not at the actual event on April 25, 2026. The joke was recorded and broadcast two days before the attempted shooting at the event.
The claim appeared in a video posted on April 26, 2026 on X account @EndWokeness (archived here). The post implies the joke was made after the shooting. It opened:
Jimmy Kimmel: "Our First Lady is here. Mrs. Trump... you have a glow like an expectant widow!"
From his mock WHCD:
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @EndWokeness on X.)
In the video posted on X, Kimmel said:
Our First Lady Melania is here looking so beautiful. Mrs. Trump you have a glow like an expectant widow.
Kimmel did not make the joke after the shooting incident at the WHCD, as the post implies. The joke was made on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on April 23, 2026, and a video was posted on Kimmel's YouTube account (archived here) the same day.
He addressed his audience during his monologue and said he was taking "a page from the Kid Rock alternative halftime show and do some of the jokes a comedian might do if our president wasn't a trembling drama queen who's scared of comedy." He opened the skit as the host of the White House Correspondents' Dinner "live from the Trump Kimmel Center in Washington, D.C." Beginning at 8:06, he made the joke about Melania Trump:
