Well, that didn’t take long.

The fleeting moment of unity witnessed over the weekend, where the media and the president found common ground following the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, suggested a potential turning point.

That evening, even the staunchest critics of Trump among the journalists in the White House press room—named in honor of James Brady, the Reagan aide tragically wounded in an assassination attempt at the same Washington Hilton—addressed the president with genuine respect.

In that setting, the shared humanity was palpable.

Donning their elegant evening attire, the journalists appeared visibly shaken, while Trump, still clad in his tuxedo, exuded calmness and reassurance.

He went so far as to praise Weijia Jiang of CBS, who is also the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and was seated next to him when the gunfire erupted.

He also gave her the first question.

‘Can you describe what was going through your mind?’ she asked.

Well, that was fast. That true blissful moment of detente this past weekend. Trump actually complimented Weijia Jiang of CBS (right), the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, who was seated right next to the president when shots were fired.

The press and the president coming together after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It seemed to augur a reset. 

‘I thought it was a tray going down,’ Trump said, adding that he had been through this – an attempted assassination – twice before, and that this had been ‘a rather traumatic experience’ for his wife, Melania, seated on the dais next to him.

The president reassured the press, and the public, that he was fine. ‘I like not to think about it,’ he said. ‘I lead a pretty normal life, considering, you know, it’s a dangerous life. I think I handle it as well as it can be handled.’

He went on to praise Jiang, who he has verbally tussled with before.

‘Madam chairman,’ Trump said, ‘I just want to say: You did a fantastic job. What a beautiful evening.’

And then something truly remarkable happened: He told the press how much he appreciated their work.

‘You’ve been very responsible in your coverage,’ he said. ‘I will say I’ve been seeing what’s been out. You’ve been very responsible.’

One night later, sitting with Norah O’Donnell for 60 Minutes, all that goodwill evaporated.

She read from the alleged gunman’s deranged manifesto, in which he called Trump a rapist and a pedophile.

‘Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people,’ Trump said. ‘Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody… you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I’m not any of those things.’

And then, the big one.

Resurfacing and going viral after the shooting was none other than Jimmy Kimmel, who held a mock roast on his show, saying that Melania ‘had a glow like an expectant widow’.

That aired on Thursday, two nights before the dinner – though you’d think Kimmel made the joke after, given the attendant hysterical media coverage.

Now: Was that joke in poor taste, given that Trump had already survived getting grazed by a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, and that the Secret Service nabbed another would-be shooter near Mar-a-Lago months later?

Yes. Most reasonable people can agree: very poor form.

But does Kimmel have the right to say it? Should reasonable people defend his right to say it?

Yes and yes.

Our First Amendment is so numbered because the Founding Fathers realized that nothing promotes and protects democracy more than free speech. It is our most cherished and important right.

So it’s demoralizing to see Melania and President Trump demand Kimmel be fired, just as it was demoralizing to see Kimmel yanked off the air in September last year by ABC – this event has its own Wikipedia page, ‘Suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ – after Kimmel implied, in an opening monologue, that Charlie Kirk’s killer had been ‘one of them,’ meaning MAGA.

That statement, as we now know, was false.

Do we know what was actually in Kimmel’s head when he said it? No. Was it horrible and irresponsible? Yes.

But yanking him off the air wasn’t the answer. Even if you hate the guy, censorship only makes him more of a martyr. It only further entrenches those on his side.

For the Trumps to now demand that ABC fire Kimmel over this latest joke is NOT the answer.

In fact, it only treats Kimmel as a grave threat, when really he should just be considered a gnat – annoying, hard to squash, his show having a similar lifespan.

Yet on Tuesday, the White House amplified their demands.

‘ABC needs to fire [Kimmel] immediately,’ White House communications director Steven Cheung said.

This is ridiculous, but the FCC’s ordered review into ABC licenses, announced Tuesday afternoon, is chilling. And it all plays into the left’s contention that Trump operates more like a dictator than an elected president.

Into the ‘No Kings’ narrative and protests.

Whether you like Kimmel or not, find his jokes amusing or obscene, he absolutely should be defended here. As Kimmel said himself on Monday night’s show, it was meant to be ‘a very light roast joke’ and that he had no intention of spurring anyone to violence.

The notion that Kimmel is in any way responsible for this — a joke that aired while the Washington Hilton gunman was already weeks into actively plotting and planning — is ridiculous.

The notion that Kimmel is in any way responsible for this – a joke that aired while the Washington Hilton gunman was already weeks into actively plotting and planning – is ridiculous.

Trump himself is a hypocrite. Here’s what he said upon the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller: ‘Good. I’m glad he’s dead.’

And here’s what he had to say about Rob Reiner after he and his wife Michele were slaughtered in their bedroom, allegedly by their own son: ‘TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,’ the president said, was a contributing factor in the death of a ‘tortured and struggling’ director.

Who could forget candidate Trump, in his first go-round, on John McCain, who spent five-and-a-half years tortured as a POW in Vietnam: ‘He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.’

More gravely, in an April 7 social media post this year warning Iran that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ unless the Strait of Hormuz was reopened.

How can Trump possibly claim the high ground here? Please.

Jimmy Kimmel is a late-night comedian. Trump is the President of the United States.

If only he could, consistently, act like it.