US regulator to review Disney broadcast licenses after Jimmy Kimmel joke about Melania Trump

The US Federal Communications Commission is ordering an early review of Disney's television broadcast licences days after President Donald Trump called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Trump had urged ABC - whose parent company is Disney - to pull Kimmel's show after the comedian joked that Melania Trump had the glow of an "expectant widow". Kimmel made the remarks days before a gunman fired shots at a gala attended by the Trumps.

In an order on Tuesday, the FCC said it had been investigating Disney's ABC stations for possible violations, including unlawful discrimination.

The BBC has contacted Disney, which owns eight television stations, and ABC for comment.

The FCC order directs the company to file license renewal applications for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days.

The agency as part of its renewal review can require Disney to prove that it meets the agency's public-interest standards. The Disney-owned ABC television station licenses were not scheduled for renewal until 2028.

The reviews could lead to the revocation of the stations' licences to broadcast, an action the commission has not taken in more than 40 years, Reuters reported.

In a statement, Democratic FCC commissioner Anna M Gomez called the FCC's order "a political stunt".

"This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere," she wrote on X. "Companies should challenge it head-on. The First Amendment is on their side."

The move comes as the White House has continued to pressure ABC to fire Kimmel. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on Tuesday that Kimmel should be "shunned for the rest of his life".

At the start of his show on Monday night, Kimmel had defended his comments about the first lady.

"It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination," he said.

"I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular," Kimmel added.

Earlier on Monday, Trump had called his late-night sketch a "call to violence" and Melania Trump accused Kimmel of deepening "the political sickness within America".

The US president and his wife were evacuated unharmed from a gala dinner on Saturday night after a gunman opened fire near a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton.

The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was tackled by authorities near a staircase leading down to a ballroom where the White House Correspondents' dinner was taking place. Hundreds of journalists, officials and public figures attending. The suspect is now charged with trying to assassinate the president.

Kimmel was taken off air last September after he made comments about the fatal shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.