What did Donald Trump do today?
He tried to parlay a joke about his failing health into a retroactive assassination threat.
Recently, ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel did a sketch in which he pretended to host the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Traditionally, this event features a comedian roasting both the president and the press. In fact, Kimmel himself did the honors in 2012.
One of Kimmel's jokes from his fake WHCA podium went like this: "And of course, our First Lady Melania is here, look at Melania, so beautiful," as footage of Melania Trump was spliced in. "Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."
The skit can be seen in its entirety here. It also featured jokes about the "documentary" film and de facto Trump bribe Melania ("the world's first motionless picture"), and barbs at Trump officials like Stephen Miller ("so racist, the reason he went bald was because his hair was black").
The event Kimmel was lampooning took place on Saturday, and was interrupted by an armed man charging into the outer perimeter of Trump's security cordon. Kimmel's skit aired on Thursday.
But that didn't stop Donald Trump, in an overwrought social media post, from trying to act as though Kimmel's laid-back joke about his notoriously fragile health—and his notoriously frosty relationship with his own third wife—counted as "a despicable call to violence," and that Kimmel should be fired for it.
Of course, Trump has tried before to get Kimmel fired, and succeeded only in drawing attention to the show. The last time came in September of last year, and resulted in a ratings bonanza for Kimmel that he has sustained into this year.
Kimmel's show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, airs weeknights at 11:35E/10:35C, and streams on Hulu.
UPDATE: Kimmel addressed the matter during tonight's monologue.
Why does this matter?
- Trump of all people should know what an actual threat dressed up as a "joke" looks like.
- There's nothing more pathetic than someone throwing a tantrum because people laughed at him.