April 28, 2026, 10:26 a.m. ET
George Clooney, one of the higher-profile Trump critics, is coming to Jimmy Kimmel’s defense after the comedian once again drew the president’s ire.
Clooney, 64, during a speech given at the Film at Lincoln Center’s 51st annual Chaplin Award Gala on Monday, April 27, defended Kimmel after the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host said first lady Melania Trump has a “glow like an expectant widow” prior to the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which came under fire.
Kimmel, in response during his Monday monologue, pointed out that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made comments earlier in the day, telling Fox News that “there will be some shots fired” in a red-carpet interview at the dinner. Clooney referenced the same out-of-context comments.
“Jimmy’s a comedian, and I would argue that Karoline Leavitt didn’t mean shots should be fired,” Clooney said during the gala, where he was honored for his contributions to cinema, according to Variety. “She was making a joke. Fair enough. You look at that side and go, ‘Well, jokes are jokes.’ But the rhetoric is a little dangerous. And we’ve seen it a lot lately.”
The actor also condemned political violence after a gunman opened fire outside of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in which President Donald Trump, the first lady and other administration officials were in attendance.
Clooney got emotional, saying he may “disagree with everything that this administration stands for, but there’s no place for the kind of violence we saw two nights ago in Washington, D.C.”
He added, “Nor is there a room for this kind of violence in Minnesota with Alex Pretti or Renée Good.”
Clooney called for unity and fighting “against hatred and corruption and cruelty and violence.”
“The question is simply, ‘What are we, as citizens of this great country, to do?'” the actor concluded in his speech. “And it is that answer in all of us, left, right and center, to build a more perfect union, heal our wounds and begin to truly make America great again.”
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump urged ABC to fire Kimmel over the alleged “call to violence.”
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” Trump wrote. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
The first lady also chimed in, writing in an X post, “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.”
Kimmel went on to defend the joke amid the backlash, saying during his monologue that the joke was “about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
He continued, echoing Melania Trump. “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.”
The man accused of opening fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate President Trump. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, could face life in prison if convicted.
Contributing: Brendan Morrow, James Powell and USA TODAY Politics staff
