Did MGM Grand cancel Jimmy Kimmel residency after Trump called for boycott? No, it never existed

In April 2026, posts on social media claimed that MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas had canceled an upcoming summer residency for the comedian Jimmy Kimmel after U.S. President Donald Trump called for Kimmel to be boycotted. 

For example, a Facebook user claimed on April 29, “The MGM Grand in Las Vegas has canceled Jimmy Kimmel’s summer residency after the President and First Lady called for a full boycott of the ‘comedian.'”

The rumor spread following legitimate posts that both Donald and Melania Trump made on social media calling for Kimmel to be fired, in response to a joke Kimmel made about Melania Trump during his April 23 show.

Some users seemed to believe the claim that Kimmel had lost an MGM Grand residency was true. Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.

We found no credible reporting about Kimmel losing a residency at the MGM Grand. Instead, searches showed that Kimmel never had a residency scheduled at the hotel, and his name was attached to a comedy club at the LINQ Hotel and Casino. Though it was true that both Donald and Melania Trump called for the ABC television network to fire Kimmel, they didn’t mention a boycott.

To investigate the rumor’s legitimacy, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo. If Kimmel had lost a residency at the MGM Grand because of Trump’s pressure, journalists with reputable news outlets, like The Associated Press, or Reuters, would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. 

We identified the rumor’s original source: America’s Last Line of Defense, a network of social media pages that describes its output as satirical.

America Loves Liberty, a page associated with the network, first shared the story on April 28. That page’s Facebook bio reads “AI-free trollery and right-wing propaganda courtesy of America’s Last Line of Defense. Nothing on this page is real.”

Additionally, the America’s Love Liberty post included a digitally added label in the bottom right corner of the post’s image, reading “ALLOD Satire,” in a similar style to MPAA and ESRB ratings for movies and video games. 

However, that marking was not visible in every post we reviewed, meaning that some users saw the claim outside of its original, satirical context. 

In September 2025, ABC and its parent company Disney pulled Kimmel’s show following a joke he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Several large broadcasting groups, including Nexstar and Sinclair, announced they would not air Kimmel’s show in response. Trump praised the decision to pull Kimmel’s show. Disney and Nexstar both had large mergers awaiting federal approval at the time, and FCC chair Brendan Carr suggested he might take action against Disney if they did not pull Kimmel’s show. (Following public backlash, ABC, Nexstar and Sinclair reinstated Kimmel’s show within two weeks).

On his April 23 show, Kimmel parodied the White House Correspondents’  Association dinner, which Trump was set to attend for the first time in his six years of presidency in the upcoming days. The dinner normally has a comedian host and roast politicians, including the president, but that was not on the schedule this year. 

As such, Kimmel took it upon himself on his own show to crack jokes at the president and his advisers, including Melania Trump. 

“Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said.

Then, at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, a gunman attempted to enter the hall where Trump was located, firing at least one shot. Neither the president nor the first lady were injured.

The day after the shooting, Melania Trump posted to X calling for Kimmel to be fired.

Her husband followed suit, posting to his Truth Social account calling for Disney and ABC to fire Kimmel later that day, then again on April 30.

In related events, on April 28, the FCC ordered an early license renewal for eight Disney-owned ABC stations. (Though, he did not directly say he was doing so in response to Kimmel’s comments.).

Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in February 2026, we alerted readers to a fake story from America’s Last Line of Defense claiming the White House had ordered a “permanent ban” on CNN.

Since the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use “originated as satire” or “labeled satire” ratings based on creators’ description of their work. It’s your call on whether you agree.

Sources