John Oliver watching Canada-u.s. trade war

John Oliver told reporters Wednesday that he’s put a stopwatch on Donald Trump.

“He’s the gift that keeps on giving the way a fire hose keeps on giving, and you wish it would stop occasionally,” he told journalists gathered for the semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour.

Oliver, host of HBO’S “Last Week Tonight,” says he’s ever wary of Trump “cannibalizing the show” and limits his reporting on the president.

But he also feels the escalating trade war between Canada and the United States “is of concern to everyone” so he will be watching the fallout.

As for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the comedian was quick to pounce on the leader’s trouble-plagued trip to India in February, which has been criticized for its cost, reception guest list, and photo-ops in which the Trudeau family wore traditional Indian clothing.

“It was ridiculous,” was Oliver’s take on the trip.

The U.k.-born comedian felt that Trudeau had “overshot the runway of his own popularity. It felt like, for the first time, he singed his fingertips on people going, ‘You’re not quite that charismatic to pull off a trip like that.”’

The current political climate has provided a lot of material for late-night hosts, but Oliver says he doesn’t usually keep a close eye on his competition.

“I generally don’t watch other shows just because it’s so hard to tend our own garden I tend not to look at what’s in other people’s.”

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” was one of several shows presented at TCA by HBO Wednesday.

Jane Fonda also took questions regarding the documentary “Jane Fonda in Five Acts,” premiering Sept. 24 on HBO Canada. The 80-year-old Hollywood legend says she and friends Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton will all be in the upcoming remake of their 1980 movie hit “9 to 5.”

“Camping,” an adaptation of the British comedy of the same name by Julia Davis, premieres Oct. 14. It stars Jennifer Garner and David Tennant as a couple whose overorganized camping trip with friends turns into tent-loads of trouble. The eight-episode series is from the team of Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham (“Girls”).

HBO president Casey Bloys made several announcements, including news that a movie based on the adult western “Deadwood” has been ordered. Original series creator David Milch is behind it, and Bloys says production could start as early as October. Rounding up the original cast, however, “has been a logistics nightmare.”