Monday night’s late-show hosts went long when it came to discussing President Trump’s recent trip to Europe that boasted one political gaffe after another, with some even bandying about the dreaded “T word.”
No, not Trump. Treason.
On “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert was so flummoxed by the president’s behavior when meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he offered up a “double-stuffed” monologue, committing more than 13 minutes to the meeting of the minds.
“What is it going to take for you to acknowledge that Putin directed his officials to help you get elected?” Colbert asked after sharing a clip of Trump disavowing U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
“Does he just have to come out and say it?” Colbert continued. “Because he did.”
Cue video of just that.
“That is shocking,” the host said, “mostly because I’m not used to a president telling the truth.”
Over on NBC, “Late Night” host Seth Meyers wanted to put things in perspective, taking the time to lay out just how bad the president’s entire European tour had been.
From breaking royal protocol with Queen Elizabeth II, to completely misunderstanding Brexit, to insulting the European Union, Trump was a mess, Meyers gleefully asserted.
But that was nothing compared to the Trump-Putin summit.
“So just to recap: Trump blamed the U.S. for Russian aggression, attacked the FBI and the special counsel’s investigation, took Putin’s side on election meddling, attacked Democrats and Hillary Clinton with Putin standing next to him and said Putin was strong and powerful,” Meyers summarized of the joint presidential press conference.
“Can you imagine what their private meeting was like? I’m worried he let Putin annex one of the 50 states,” he joked.
Jimmy Fallon didn’t have quite as much to say about Trump and Putin’s meeting, but he got his jabs in where he could.
“Trump was pretty nervous,” the “Tonight Show” host said, “which makes sense because most people are nervous when meeting their boss.”
As for negotiations between the men, Fallon figured it went pretty well.
“According to experts, Trump and Putin had a lot to negotiate in their meeting. Trump says negotiations went great: Putin now controls New York and California, and in exchange, Trump got three magic beans,” he said.
Like Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel opted to open with a long view on Trump’s time in Europe.
“On Friday, this seemed like a big deal,” Kimmel said, showing a video of Trump committing the royal faux pas of walking ahead of the queen. “That turned out to be nothing compared to what happened in Finland this morning.”
But Kimmel got truly slap-happy after showing the clip of President Trump declaring that he didn’t see why Russia would have interfered in the 2016 election.
“Well, I guess that settles it. There you go. If you’re wondering whether or not Vladimir Putin has an incriminating video of Donald Trump, we now know, beyond a treasonable doubt, that he does, Kimmel joked.
“This wasn’t a good day for Donald Trump,” he added. “We haven’t seen an American so owned by a Russian since ‘Rocky IV.’”
Trevor Noah was just as stymied as anyone by Trump’s relationship with Putin.
After showing a clip of a former U.S. ambassador to Russia stating that it was “the single most embarrassing performance by an American president on the world stage that I’ve ever seen,” the “Daily Show” host was shocked.
“Damn. The most embarrassing performance by an American president. Do you know how hard it is to achieve that,” Noah inquired. “George H.W. Bush once threw up on the Japanese prime minister, and Trump is now on top.”
To say that Noah was unimpressed would be an understatement.
“And honestly, I don’t know, what did we expect?” the host asked. “This is what you get when you put a KGB agent up against a KFC agent.”
Watch all of Noah’s mildly unsafe-for-work commentary here.
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