Late-night hosts dug into Donald Trump’s incoherent statements on Iran and his plan to turn his Florida golf course into a Camp David-style retreat.
Seth Meyers
On Wednesday’s Late Night, Seth Meyers took a closer look into Trump’s delusions of power and indecipherable statements. “Trump thinks his power is virtually unlimited, and polls have shown people hate that,” he said. “A majority of voters say Trump is dangerous and corrupt, and yet Trump is doubling down.
“We have a president who’s enamored with his own power and thinks he knows it all, which is kind of a bad combination, especially since half the time we have no idea what the hell he’s talking about,” he added, “as he illustrated on Monday with an offhand comment in which he tried to argue that high gas prices caused by the war in Iran were a small price to pay to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
“But as usual, he was incoherent.” At said rally in Nebraska, Trump said: “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”
Related: Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s joke about Iran bombing LA: ‘Our own president wishing death to America’
Meyers attempted to translate: “I think what Trump was trying to say is that Iran had a nuclear weapon, they could take out Los Angeles or San Diego, which is why the war and the high prices caused by the war are a small price to pay in comparison,” he said. “But, real quick, why is it on us to translate the president’s words into plain English?!
“He’s a singularly powerful person in a singularly powerful office, so it’s bad that he speaks in mangled, incoherent half-sentences that no one can understand and works out premises on the fly like a comedian at open mic night,” Meyers ranted. “Even if it’s true that Trump was saying that Iran shouldn’t be able to nuke LA or San Diego, it’s bad that people can’t understand what the hell the president is saying on a daily basis.
“If the president cannot speak in clear, coherent sentences that everyone can understand, that’s bad,” he concluded. “Especially when he’s enamored with his own power and surrounded by people who can tell him whatever he wants.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel reacted to news that Trump hopes to turn his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, into a Camp David-style retreat for foreign leaders and future presidents.
“At least he’s open to the idea that there will be future presidents, I guess,” Kimmel mused.
Allegedly, future presidents would be offered comp memberships to the club. “Just what a Gavin Newsom would want – a luxurious spot to unwind and relax, with the MyPillow man and a guy who played Beast Master and Vanilla Ice,” Kimmel joked.
“And don’t worry about the cost! A lawyer for the president promised that Trump will pay for the construction,” he added. “Really the one thing we know for sure is that Trump will not pay for the construction himself. This is what he said about the ballroom, too.”
Speaking of that ballroom, which remains under construction and legally contested, Kimmel wondered: “what is with all these projects? Not one of them is finished. The East Wing’s still a hole in the ground, the reflecting pool is empty, the Kennedy Center closed. The arch is like a rectangle with construction tape around it. How about you finish one of the other stupid projects nobody needed first?
“This country – we are $41tn in debt,” he added. “We don’t need a presidential retreat modeled after Camp David. We already have one of those, it’s called Camp David.”
In other news, Wednesday also marked the 30th birthday of Fox News. “What do you get for the network that ruined everything?” Kimmel joked. Perhaps this lovely tribute to the network’s first three decades: “Three decades ago, a visionary named Rupert Murdoch asked a simple question,” said Kimmel. “He asked, ‘What if the news was whatever I want it to be?’ And with nothing more than millions of dollars and a complete disregard for the America in which he wasn’t born, he turned that idea into what has become the number one reason you can’t talk to your dad any more.”
