First Lady Melania Trump is calling for ABC to hold Jimmy Kimmel accountable days after the late night host offered up some jokes about her and President Donald Trump in a mock version of a White House Correspondents’ Dinner roast.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” the First Lady said on social media Monday. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” she continued. “A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”

The First Lady did not reference that Kimmel’s jokes were meant in the spirit of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which historically has had a comedian who lampoons the President of the United States host the festivities. That tradition also includes presidents delivering self-deprecating remarks. Until Saturday, as president, Donald Trump has boycotted every WHCD.

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According to Fox News, Kimmel on Thursday night had said, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

During Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a heavily-armed gunman trying to rush the event “sprinted through a security checkpoint,” The New York Times reported, but was apprehended by Secret Service before he was able to enter the event space.

The Times also published some of the jokes Kimmel delivered Thursday night in a parody that he had called an “all-American” version of the D.C. dinner:

“By the way, in the unfortunate event that our president has a medical emergency tonight, do we have a doctor in the house — oh, I’m sorry. I mean, do we have a Jesus in the house? I always confuse them, too.”

“I get why you think you’re Jesus. This guy, every time he walks into a room, people say, ‘Christ, he’s back.’”

Both jokes appeared to reference posts the president had made seemingly depicting himself as Jesus.

Other jokes by Kimmel the Times published included:

“Oh, by the way, before we go any further: Melania, this is Donald. Donald, this is Melania. That was my impression of Jeffrey Epstein.”

“As the president will tell you repeatedly until you beg him to stop, President Trump has accomplished so much during his second term. He passed new incentives for oil and gas. He put the brakes on solar and wind. That will be your legacy, sir, breaking wind and passing gas.”

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Circumstances have placed Democrats in an enviable position, but there are numerous reasons why the party has plenty of reasons to temper its confidence going into the November midterms, warns New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni.

From winning numerous special elections to dousing President Donald Trump’s efforts to pick up House seats for Republicans with mid-decade redistricting, Democrats have overperformed. Things are going so well that in addition to believing they can retake majority control of the House, Democrats now have their eyes on the Senate.

Democrats are also benefiting from President Donald Trump at “peak derangement,” Bruni explains, along with former allies like Tucker Carlson “swearing him off,” and prices that refuse to fall.

“President Trump may not be Jesus, but he’s performing a resurrection — of the Democratic Party. It’s enough to give an agnostic like me religion,” Bruni writes.

But he is not uncontrollably optimistic, and delivers a seven-point warning that Democrats, he says, should keep in mind.

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“Voters still dislike them. A lot,” Bruni writes. The Republican Party’s approval ratings are slightly better than the Democratic Party’s. Democrats cannot assume an “anti-Trump posture” will be enough for them to sail to victory in the midterms.

“Every time people tell me, ‘Well, Trump is getting less and less popular, and his approval ratings are so low,’ I say, ‘Yeah, and national Democrats are even lower,’” Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, told Politico’s Playbook, Bruni notes.

“Not all elections over the past six or so months — and not all data — point to a swelling blue wave,” he warns. Bruni notes that in last week’s Virginia redistricting vote, Democrats won only by about three percentage points. In generic ballots, when voters are asked which party they want to have control of Congress, voters choose Democrats, but only by about five points. Bruni calls that margin “underwhelming.”

“The map isn’t kind to Democrats,” he continues. If Democrats really want to take the Senate, they can afford to make few mistakes. Democrats must hold all their current seats, and flip four more. Bruni calls it “tough” terrain.

“There’s zero assurance of party unity,” Bruni observes. Despite the “grave stakes” of GOP control of Congress, Democratic “infighting” remains. “The tension between the party’s progressive and moderate wings is thick,” he notes, and warns that for the good of the party, all sides must come together if they want Democrats to win in November.

Bruni calls Democrats’ financial picture “mixed,” explaining that while some individual Democrats have “amassed war chests much bigger than that of their Republican rivals,” GOP committees and super PACs have been more successful.

There are still redistricting battles Democrats need to win, and “uncertainty about which party will ultimately come out ahead” remains.

Lastly, Bruni warns, “Trump could have some very, very dirty tricks up his sleeve.”

Trump did try to overturn the 2020 election results, has continued to push to end voting by mail, and talks about “taking other measures that are obviously intended to suppress the Democratic vote total.”

Bruni concludes by calling himself “bullish” on Democrats’ chances in November, but adds that these are not “normal times,” and suggests that “Democrats may have to generate enthusiasm and turnout well beyond whatever burden they’d normally confront.”

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Image: Public Domain by Architect of the Capitol via Flickr

President Donald Trump on Thursday told reporters that he was “never much in favor” of prediction markets. “I don’t like it conceptually. It is what it is. I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”

“Well, you know, the whole world unfortunately has become somewhat of a casino,” Trump, a former casino owner, told reporters. “And you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place they’re doing these betting things.”

“I’m not happy with any of these sites,” Trump said. “They have predictive markets — it’s a crazy world, it’s a much different world than it was.”

And yet, Trump and some of his family members stand to benefit financially from those very markets, according to The New York Times.

“The president’s publicly traded media company unveiled its own prediction market product last year,” the Times reports. “And the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has ties to two of the industry’s top firms, including Polymarket.”

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Ethics experts the Times consulted say Trump’s public statements directly contradict his family’s financial interests in the industry.

Despite Trump’s admonition, new regulations are not expected. Last year, the Trump administration “backed away from enforcement efforts against Polymarket, and it is unclear whether regulators will adopt any new oversight measures.”

The Times reports that the White House “has warned staff not to wager on government decisions, but his family’s involvement with these firms undermines the president’s message.”

U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) who is sponsoring legislation to ban government officials from betting on prediction markets using classified information, has raised concerns about national security risks. Chances that the bill would pass through a GOP-majority Congress are uncertain.

“It’s too politically dicey,” she said. “There is not a single important issue of the day where I don’t feel the shadow of Trump and his sons.”

Q: “People suspect that there’s insider trading happening on these prediction markets around the war. Are you concerned?”

Trump: “The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.” pic.twitter.com/gESZk6GF2Z

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) April 23, 2026

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