Late-night hosts recapped a tough couple days for the Oval Office, as Donald Trump waved to imaginary crowd and JD Vance bombed softball interviews.

Seth Meyers

On Wednesday’s Late Night, Seth Meyers addressed the a “real issue” from the midterms campaign trail that could no longer be ignored: “Donald Trump might no longer be able to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake, be it polls or anything else,” he said, “as evidenced by this video taken Monday, where he seems to be waving at someone before boarding Marine One, only for the camera to zoom out and reveal that no one was there.”

Indeed, Meyers showed footage of Trump waving to no one, as if a crowd was there. “When the helicopter pilot saw that, he probably wanted to call in a new flight plan,” he joked. “‘Hey. Yeah, this is Marine One. We’re gonna scrap Kansas and head straight for the Whispering Pines Retirement Home.’

“Trump loves going to rallies,” Meyers later added. “One, because unlike on the helipad, he’s not the only one who can see the people. And two, he gets to talk uninterrupted. And he’s landed on an interesting way to describe his performances at those rallies.”

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Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump described his own rallies as “two hours” of “ranting, raving”.

“You know, you don’t have to go for two hours,” Meyers responded. “They’re rallies. They’re not feats of endurance. You’re the only one who wants to treat these things like dance marathons from the 1920s.”

In other news, JD Vance, attempted during a town hall to blame high gas prices not on Trump’s war in Iran, but on Joe Biden, for allegedly taking US oil refining capacity offline during his administration.

“You guys have to stop talking about Joe Biden,” Meyers responded. “Most people don’t even remember that he was president. Biden probably doesn’t even remember that he was president.

“This is such a shameless lie,” Meyers added. “You want us to believe that a spike in gas prices that started in March of 2026 was because of a drop in refining capacity under Joe Biden, whose presidency ended in January 2025, and not because of the Iran war that Donald Trump started in February 2026. That’s like walking out of a bathroom and saying: ‘Hey everyone, I think someone clogged the toilet 14 months ago.”

It doesn’t appear that voters are buying it, as the vice-president’s approval ratings have hit rock-bottom; he’s now the least popular Republican vice-president at this point in his term since modern polling. “Oh my god, JD Vance is less popular than Mike Pence,” Meyers laughed. “And don’t forget, Republicans tried to kill that guy.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Vance is so unpopular,” Meyers added. “He’s got the integrity of a used-car salesman and the charisma of a wet ham.”

The Daily Show

And on the Daily Show, Ronny Chieng also checked in with Trump’s PR-challenged vice-president. Vance “is probably going to run for president in 2028, assuming AI doesn’t kill us all next year”, the host explained. “Which is probably why he’s been doing softball interviews that are impossible to screw up – unless you’re JD Vance.”

During an interview aboard Air Force Two, Vance was asked by a reporter: “What are you good at in politics?” He still dodged the question, instead going into a tangent about loving life as a senator, forcing the journalist to cut him off with: “Sorry to interrupt, but tell me what you’re good at.”

“How is that a gotcha question?” Chieng said. “JD, tell us one thing you don’t suck at! ‘Uhh, can I phone a friend? Oh wait, I don’t have any.’

“He does have a sense of humor, though,” Chieng continued. “In fact, I saw him tell a really funny joke this morning.” Chieng then played a clip of Vance addressing press in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he claimed the “entire” Trump administration “rejects pay for play, we reject anybody getting rich off of their connections to the government”.

Chieng could only laugh. “Maybe JD’s right – when have you seen allegations of corruption in the Trump administration? I mean, yeah, there was his ambassador to Greece, and his crypto deals, his IRS slush fund, his son’s wedding party, his son-in-law’s real estate deals … But those were weeks ago!” Chieng joked. “When have you ever seen corruption allegations this morning?”