This paper presents an investigation of the excitation of an electron plasma wave in a hot collisionless magnetoplasma by a right‐handed Gaussian EM beam (pump wave) when the plasma wave and the pump wave are propagating along the static magnetic field. On account of the Gaussian intensity distribution of the pump wave, pondermotive force becomes finite and the electrons are redistributed. This redistribution is highly dependent on whether &ohgr;c≳2&ohgr;0or &ohgr;c<2&ohgr;0, where &ohgr;cis the electron cyclotron frequency and &ohgr;0is the pump‐wave frequency. The modified background electron density leads to coupling between the plasma wave and the pump wave. When the initial power of the pump wave is greater than the critical power for self‐focusing, oscillatory self‐focusing of the pump wave occurs and the coupling of the two waves are modified. Moreover, the effect of changing the intensity of the magnetic field affects the self‐focusing of the pump wave, and the plasma‐wave excitation is accordingly affected.