Trump and Melania attend Al Smith dinner collectively as Harris skips it to marketing campaign

Jim Gaffigan joked about Melania Trump’s memoir and made a jab at her husband while speaking at the Al Smith charity dinner on Thursday evening.

“Can we have a round of applause for First Lady, Melania Trump? She presently has the number one book in America,” Gaffigan said as the room erupted in applause.

“Jesus taught us to forgive…70 times seven,” he quipped. “And Melania, you may be the first person to actually reach that.”

Comedian Jim Gaffigan, host of this year’s Al Smith dinner, kicked off the event with a series of political zingers.

Gaffigan began with a quip about Kamala Harris’s decision not to attend, telling attendees he wanted to address the notable absence: “Of course, I’m talking about the middle class,” he went on to joke.

“You know, this event has been referred to as the Catholic Met Gala, 22% of Americans identified as Catholic,” Gaffigan later added. “Catholics will be a key demographic in every battle throughout the state. I’m sorry – why is Vice President Harris not here?”

This isn’t Gaffigan’s first foray into politics in recent months – the comedian has also been tapped to play vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live.

“But seriously, this is the special night people,” Gaffigan said. “This is the one night when Republicans and Democrats and Democrats who used to be Republican and Republicans who used to be Democrats and independents and whatever Michael Bloomberg is now…we can [come together].”

The former president and former first lady appeared at the dinner both dressed in black-tie outfits Thursday night. Trump smiled, raised his fist and shook hands as he made his way to his seat.

Trump is set to speak at the event later on Thursday evening.

Melania has been notably absent from the campaign trail. Over the last year, she has attended only a handful of rallies and events, often avoiding the spotlight while there. She also broke a long-running tradition by attending but not speaking at the Republican National Convention in July.

Donald and Melania Trump are attending tonight’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York City, an annual event to raise money for Catholic charities.

Attending the dinner has been a tradition among major party presidential candidates since the 1960s.

But, Kamala Harris’s team confirmed last month that the vice president will not be attending. This makes her the first presidential candidate for a major party to do so in decades.

Instead, Harris spent the day campaigning in Wisconsin, a key swing state.

The former president’s attorneys allegedly sent Daniels an offer where the amount she owed him over a defamation suit would be lowered if she agreed not to make “defamatory or disparaging statements” about him.

The details were revealed in a special report by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who obtained calls, documents and emails about the deal.

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Dave Bautista has mocked Donald Trump’s “tough guy” pose, calling the presidential candidate “a weak, tubby toddler.”

Bautista, 55, rose to fame as a WWE wrestler before building a career as an action star in movies including Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, the James Bond film Spectre and both instalments of Dune.

On last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, late-night host Kimmel quoted a recent New York Times poll that found Trump is leading rival candidate Kamala Harris by 17 points among male voters. “But is he the strong, alpha man these men believe him to be?” asked Kimmel. “Not according to one of the toughest guys I know, he isn’t.”

“DNA tests have now confirmed that Sinwar is dead. This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” said the president.

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The National Rifle Association, the influential firearms lobbying group, was mocked online for allegedly getting the facts wrong on a video claiming vice presidential candidate Tim Walz doesn’t know how to use a shotgun.

“Tim Walz previously claimed he kept a shotgun in his car so he could hunt pheasants after football practice,” the group wrote introducing the video, posted on X on Tuesday. “This is Tim Walz attempting to load his shotgun this past weekend.⁩”

The clip then features a video of Walz using a shotgun over circus-like music, and captions that claim “that dog don’t hunt” and urging viewers to defeat “confiscation Kamala.”

X users quickly added a community note to the post, linking to a video suggesting Walz was in fact unloading the shotgun.

“Clearly unloading and checking the action,” one user, a Colorado cattle rancher, commented.

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“DNA tests have now confirmed that Sinwar is dead. This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” said the president.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.