A few days before the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump last weekend, one comic’s joke on his late-night show sounded routine enough, if a little edgy.

Taking a jab at the hefty age gap between Donald and Melania Trump, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel – playing the role of guest comic at a mock White House correspondents’ dinner – described the first lady as having “a glow like an expectant widow”.

His routine was, in part, a sendup of the reality that the annual Washington event no longer takes the chance of having a comedian offend the Washington Hilton audience. Comic Michelle Wolf did just that in 2018 when she mocked everyone from Trump spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders to click-hungry journalists.

But in the hours after the real-life dinner was disrupted by a man who entered the Washington Hilton with weapons, Kimmel’s throwaway line about seemed darker.

The Trumps quickly used it as grievance fodder.

Melania Trump blasted Kimmel’s “hateful and violent rhetoric.” The president went further, calling Kimmel’s days-old quip “a despicable call to violence”.

He demanded that ABC fire Kimmel.

That didn’t happen. ABC’s parent company, Disney, apparently learned something last year when it yanked Kimmel off the air for a brief time after a similar dustup. His show was restored after bipartisan public........

© The Guardian