Seth Meyers on Trump: 'He's still 50/50 on whether Navy Seals are actual seals'
Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s braggadocious reaction to the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his embarrassed reaction to being booed at a baseball game.
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers started by bringing up Rudy Giuliani’s embarrassing butt-dial to a CNN reporter last week. “We’re officially at that point where these guys are confessing out of their mouths and their asses,” he said.
He moved on to Trump, who revealed that something big was happening via a cryptic tweet. Meyers said the president was “like a stepdad who just scored backstage passes to Hootie and the Blowfish”.
The tweet was referring to the killing of Baghdadi and Meyers said Trump couldn’t stop himself from making it “super weird” during the rambling press conference afterwards. During the performance, Trump noted the great quality of the footage he was watching during the mission, comparing it to a movie. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if, to keep him busy while they carried out the mission, they made him watch an actual movie,” he said.
Meyers also joked that Trump was “still 50/50 on whether navy Seals are actual seals”.
Trump claimed he didn’t tell Nancy Pelosi about it before it happened because he didn’t want to risk a leak. “It seems weird to criticise Pelosi for leaks since every time your lawyer farts, he FaceTimes CNN,” Meyers joked.
Trevor Noah
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah mentioned that Baghdadi was killed because his courier had tipped off the Americans over his whereabouts, which he said was “a great reminder to always tip your delivery guy”.
Noah played a montage of Trump’s press conference, claiming that, rather than a president, “he sounds like a dude on the local news who just saw some shit”.
Trump also used the occasion to downplay the killing of Osama bin Laden and, in turn, Barack Obama. “Trump is the only person who can turn a unifying occasion into a dickmeasuring contest,” he said.
Noah added: “The whole conversation is ridiculous.”
Stephen Colbert
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert
also spoke about Baghdadi: “I would also like to congratulate President Donald J Trump but he just makes it so damn hard.”
He also played footage from Trump’s incoherent 50-minute press conference and focused on a clip in which Trump claims that the killing of Bin Laden wasn’t a big deal in comparison. “You know how I know that killing Bin Laden was a big deal?” Colbert said. “Because Barack Obama never had to say that killing Bin Laden was a big deal.”
Trump claimed that killing Baghdadi was like killing a dog, which led Colbert to joke: “We did the humane thing: we gave him a suicide vest and chased him down a tunnel.”
The US also received help from the Syrian Kurds despite Trump recently putting an end to any assistance at the Syrian-Turkish border. “That is truly going above and beyond,” Colbert said. “It’s like your ex volunteering to help move your waterbed after you cheated on her and forced her to fight the Turkish army alone.”
Jimmy Kimmel
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host started by covering Trump getting booed at a World Series game in Washington DC. “Usually to get booed that much at a game in Washington DC, you have to play for the Redskins,” he quipped. “I guess the orange skins count, too.”
Kimmel showed footage of Trump’s crestfallen face and joked: “You know he’s gonna be throwing himself a big rally in Alabama after that to make him feel great again.”
He also referred to Trump’s cryptic weekend tweet, joking that people might have thought it meant Kid Rock had been named secretary of state.
He then spoke about Trump saying that Baghdadi had died like a dog. “What does that even mean? He accidentally ate one of those giantsized Hershey bars?”