Jimmy Kimmel Criticizes Trump Press Ban With Remark on Melania Trump’s Separate Bedroom

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel used President Donald Trump’s restriction of press access at the White House to make a remark about the first lady’s separate bedroom. The comment came during Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue, in which he addressed the decision by major television networks to suspend pooled press coverage of presidential events.

The suspension followed the Trump administration’s ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from participating in the press pool. Kimmel described the network response as a protest against the ban.

‘I mentioned last night that, as a result of Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, the major networks, including Fox, have decided to pull what is known as press pool coverage,’ Kimmel said. ‘The outlets take turns providing a live TV feed of all the president’s events. But then they suspended that coverage in protest of the ban, which has to drive Trump even crazier than he already is.’

Kimmel then linked the press restrictions to the president’s television viewing habits. ‘There’s nothing this man loves more than being on television,’ he said. ‘And right now, thanks to his own dumb actions, the only camera at the White House is the Ring camera Melania had mounted on her bedroom door to keep him out of it.’

The White House has not issued a specific response to Kimmel’s Tuesday monologue. The press ban and the networks’ decision to suspend pooled coverage remain in effect.

Kimmel’s remark referenced a living arrangement that has been documented in multiple books and reports. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump maintain separate bedrooms in the White House residence, a setup that has been described in detail in recent publications.

According to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, titled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, the president occupies the traditional master bedroom while the first lady uses an adjacent space with an en suite dressing room and bathroom.

The book states that President Trump moved into the White House in January 2025 and soon began rearranging furnishings. In the early weeks of the administration, items were moved from the second-floor corridor into the president’s bedroom, sometimes by Trump himself.

‘Sometimes Trump carried the objects in himself, rearranging things across the private quarters on a whim,’ Haberman and Swan wrote. ‘Once, when staff gently reminded the President that he was taking things from the Center Hall his wife had personally selected, he made clear he didn’t care.’

The authors noted that Melania Trump was not spending significant time at the White House during this period. Staff members responded to the missing items by photographing replacement objects and sending the images to the first lady for approval.

The book describes the Trumps as the only presidential couple since Richard and Pat Nixon to regularly use and maintain separate bedrooms. It also details President Trump’s preference for a carpeted bathroom, a choice dating to his first term, and his habit of leaving empty potato chip bags, Starbucks wrappers, and ice cream cartons in his bedroom.

This is not the first time Kimmel has referenced the Trumps’ sleeping arrangements. In April 2026, during an alternative monologue for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel made a joke describing Melania Trump as having ‘a glow like an expectant widow.’ The comment drew a sharp response from White House communications director Steven Cheung, who called Kimmel a ‘s— human being’ for doubling down on the joke.

Kimmel later addressed the backlash, stating that the quip was about the age difference between the president and first lady. ‘It was a very light roast joke about the fact that [Trump] is almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,’ Kimmel said. ‘It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.’

He added that he and Melania Trump shared common ground on rejecting violent rhetoric. ‘I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,’ Kimmel said. ‘And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.’

The separate bedroom arrangement has been reported in several books, including Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and Kate Bennett’s Free, Melania. Bennett wrote that the first lady uses a two-room suite on the third floor of the White House, the same space where Marian Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama, previously stayed.

President Trump has also acknowledged the arrangement in a conversation with California Governor Gavin Newsom during a tour of his aircraft. Newsom said Trump showed him a bedroom with two separate beds. ‘Melania wanted one bed,’ Newsom quoted Trump as saying. ‘But there are two beds, you know, two beds next to each other.’

The networks’ suspension of pooled press coverage remains in place. Kimmel’s program, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, airs on ABC.

nn

Image Via: TOI