Adam Carolla Defends Jimmy Kimmel Amid Trump Joke Firestorm

Jimmy Kimmel is in the middle of another political dustup after a joke he made about President Trump ... but one person is in the talk show host's corner -- and it's somewhat surprising.

Adam Carolla defended Kimmel on a recent episode of his self-titled podcast ... saying Kimmel wasn't out of line with the joke he's being hammered for by the White House and MAGA after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Adam said of the now infamous first lady "widow" joke ... “That’s a pretty typical roast joke. It is also a trope: Any younger, beautiful woman who’s married to an older guy, especially if the guy’s rumored to be sort of a douchey, you would make that joke at any roast.”

The pushback from Adam raised some eyebrows ... because yes, he and Jimmy once co-hosted "The Man Show" on Comedy Central ... but AC has also railed against woke culture and the Biden Administration, thereby becoming embraced by conservatives.

As for Jimmy's reaction to the pearl-clutching ... he opened his Monday monologue by joking sometimes you wake up and "the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired" ... adding, yeah, we've all been there.

He made it crystal clear he wasn't calling for violence, insisting the bit was just a "pretend roast" ... clearly a dig at the couple's age gap, not anything darker. Kimmel doubled down that it was a "very light roast joke" about Trump nearing 80 and Melania being significantly younger.

While acknowledging Melania had a "stressful experience over the weekend" following the shooting, Kimmel still turned the tables, saying he agrees violent rhetoric should be toned down but suggested she might want to "have a conversation" with her husband about it first.