Late-night hosts spoke about Donald Trump’s attempts to transform the White House and how he was “cashing in bigly” on being president.
Jimmy Kimmel
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host spoke about Trump’s “goon squad” indicting his former national security adviser John Bolton while the president was still “brazenly lying about the economy”.
This week Trump also met with Vladimir Putin, something he bragged about on social media before claiming that he is the only president to have ended a war. “All the other wars ended mysteriously by themselves,” Kimmel said.
Trump also “still has his eye on the ballroom” hosting an event for investors willing to help fund a renovation. Kimmel named a number of tech companies, including Meta and Google, who all “lined up to eat beef stroganoff and kiss his ass”.
He said it was like “a demented version of Cinderella where the pumpkin is in charge”.
Trump has still been “cashing in bigly” on being president with his family earning $1bn in crypto alone over the last year. He has also continued to sell watches via adverts mainly shown on Fox News. “Try to imagine Lincoln in front of a flag selling top hats,” he said, before adding: “Trump doesn’t even wear a watch!”
Kimmel said there is “so much greed and hypocrisy and duplicity” in the party with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, still blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. Kimmel again noted that it was all a distraction from the Epstein files.
This Saturday will see nationwide protests against Trump’s authoritarian rule, and even though they are aiming to be peaceful, Kimmel said that on Fox they will be painted as “violent, vicious Antifa riots”.
The right has already been calling them “Hate America” rallies and Kimmel joked that the January 6 insurrection was only a “patriotic walking tour”.
Stephen Colbert
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert also spoke about Trump’s “Cinderella ballroom” and the dinner attended by investors. He called it a “big dumb vanity project”.
Trump also wants a triumphal arch in the capital and has taken credit for designing it. “We’ve had them for thousands of years,” Colbert scoffed.
Republicans have also been sharing videos depicting Chicago as a war zone using footage from other states. “I can’t believe that’s what Chicago looks like now because it doesn’t,” he said.
Colbert joked that if you wanted to reveal the horrors in the city, “just show a deep dish pizza”.
This week has also seen leaked chats from the Young Republicans group which have unearthed “deeply disturbing texts” including support for Hitler.
When Mike Johnson was asked about it, he denied it reflected the party’s values. Colbert joked that if Johnson had a time machine, “would he use it to go back and kiss baby Hitler?”