The first lady’s war on “corrosive” rhetoric has a massive blind spot — it’s her husband, the king of corrosiveness.
On Monday, Melania Trump took to X to demand that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel because he told a joke about her having the “glow of an expectant widow.” His words, she fumed, were “corrosive.” He was spreading hate. He was dividing the country. ABC needed to act.
And, she laughably said Kimmel engages in “atrocious behavior.” As recently as last month, former Vice President Al Gore called her husband “atrocious” — and he’s just the latest.
On Sunday evening, her husband was the epitome of the word atrocious when he sat down with CBS correspondent Norah O'Donnell on “60 Minutes” and called her a “disgrace,” twice, simply for reading aloud from a shooting suspect’s manifesto as part of an interview.
Melania’s statement about Kimmel was nowhere close to a defense of civil discourse. It’s hard to imagine she practices it at home. What do they talk about? Inquiring minds want to know, as the old axiom goes.
She was not taking a high-minded, principled stand against rhetoric that wounds because, only hours earlier, there were literal wounds after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Instead of showing humility after the shocking incident, she attacked, metaphorically, with guns blazing.
And beyond how tone-deaf it is, if Melania Trump actually believes public figures have a responsibility not to use language that “deepens the political sickness within America,” she would have said something, at some point, about the loathsomely corrosive man she married.
But she won’t, since Donald is her cash cow, and for Melania it’s never about decency, it’s all about the money. Donald is her personal slot machine, albeit an atrocious one.
There’s no reason to rehash all the corrosiveness that spews out of her husband, Donald Trump, 24 hours a day, literally, and seven days a week, even a “vulgar” one on Easter.
Let’s just focus on what he said to O’Donnell, the night before Melania decided to be a hypocrite by assailing Kimmel.
O’Donnell was doing her job, asking relevant questions about the shooting Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton.
During the interview, she asked Trump about Allen’s assertions in his manifesto because understanding a shooter’s motive is, self-evidently, relevant journalism.
Trump’s response was to call her “horrible,” a “disgrace,” and “disgraceful.” He told her she “shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes.” He told her she should “be ashamed” of herself.
He told a veteran journalist that asking about a shooting that happened 24 hours earlier, and involved him, was shameful behavior.
Then came Melania’s zingers at Kimmel. Was she trying to one-up her husband’s vulgarity? Did she even see the irony in declaring that “words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America”?
Melania, Donald called, and asked why you are stealing words that describe him.
Maybe Melania really doesn’t pay attention to her husband, and once again went rogue after mysteriously pontificating, overly so, about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
This is a couple that has made the degradation of journalists, and others in the public eye, routine. Trump has called reporters “enemies of the people,” “scum,” and an avalanche of vomiting “fake news” — so many times that we’ve sadly become immune to his insults.
He has mocked reporters’ appearances, intelligence, and patriotism.
The Society of Professional Journalists has noted his attacks follow “an unmistakable pattern of hostility, often directed at women.”
And Melania, who gives every indication she’s not wildly in love with Donald, wants ABC to fire a comedian over a widow joke. God forbid he tells a divorce joke, but we all know that’s a whole other story.
When Kimmel makes an off-color joke, which is his wont, and it’s about the thin-skinned Melania, it’s a national emergency requiring corporate intervention. When Trump calls a CBS correspondent “disgraceful” on live television, well, that’s fine.
Kimmel was joking. Trump was serious, and Melania clearly can’t differentiate between the two.
Her motto is simple: words are only dangerous when they come from someone with Trump Derangement Syndrome. When they come from the deranged Donald, they don’t mean anything.
And then there’s the absurdity of the Kimmel complaint in the context of this weekend.
Cole Tomas Allen traveled by train from Los Angeles to Washington. He checked into the hotel the day before. He ranked his targets. He sent a 1,000-word document to his family 10 minutes before the attack. He referred to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin.”
He came dangerously close to creating a horrific, deadly nightmare. You’d think Melania might want to address the emotional havoc that was an outcome of the incident. The nation is still grappling with what happened.
In any ordinary time, the first couple would try to lower the temperature. Instead, Melania raises it.
Her calling Kimmel a coward was rich. She said he “hides behind ABC.” That’s sanctimonious from a woman who has stood silently behind a husband who wanted to wipe out a civilization, celebrated the death of Rob Reiner and Robert Mueller, and posted an image of himself as Christ, arguably the most atrocious insult of all.
He did that in a matter of months, along with a litany of other inappropriate remarks and posts on Truth Social. Her husband is the one who does the hiding. He hides behind everything @realDonaldTrump posts.
Kimmel doesn’t hide. He goes on television five nights a week and says exactly what he thinks about the most powerful family in the country. That’s not cowardice. That’s his job.
What would actually be cowardly is if ABC sided with Melania’s hurt feelings and decided to can Kimmel, or if Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon thought twice about joking about her.
However, the real joke is Melania, especially her documentary, Melania, which was more offensive, especially to the working class, than any joke a late-night host could tell.
Melania Trump wants Jimmy Kimmel fired for saying she looked like a woman expecting to become a widow, while her husband treats women like trash.
So if she’s opening the door to a contest of “corrosiveness,” the joke is on her, because she and her husband would win by a landslide.