Seth Meyers, who unexpectedly delivered one of the more heartfelt post-election monologues in the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton, returned to his Late Night program after a brief vacation to weigh in on the reality star-turned-politician’s troubling tenure as president-elect.
“In the last week, we’ve gotten glimpses of what will likely be two of the most important features of a Donald Trump presidency: his willingness to make false claims with no evidence, and his shoot-from-the-hip approach to foreign policy,” said Meyers. “And those two things do not mix well.”
He added: “When you’re dealing with foreign powers in unstable regions, you need sober, analytical thinking and a firm grasp of reality—qualities you definitely do not associate with Donald Trump.”
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As Meyers pointed out, Trump’s shock election victory “has not stopped him from peddling conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality,” like his tweet about how he would have won the popular vote if you deduct the “millions” of people who voted illegally—a claim that originated in a tweet, that was then picked up by the conspiracy-theory site Infowars, which has claimed that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, the Sandy Hook massacre was staged, and that the American government is poisoning our water to turn people gay. President-elect Trump is an avid Infowars aficionado, and has praised its host, Alex Jones, on the program.
To make matters worse, according to The Washington Post, there have only been four documented cases of voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election—and in three of the four cases, the person committing voter fraud was a Trump supporter. Oh, and Trump even took it upon himself to retweet a Twitter fan trolling a CNN reporter about alleged voter fraud, only to have the troll be a 16-year-old boy from the decidedly posh Beverly Hills, California.
“It makes sense that Trump would identify with a 16-year-old, as he has surrounded himself with a team of aides and spokespeople that defend his actions the way entitled parents would defend their shitty kid at a high school,” joked Meyers.
The comedian then threw to a series of clips of Trump supporters, from Mike Pence to Reince Preibus, defending Trump’s erratic behavior as president-elect—with Preibus, who will serve as chief of staff in the Trump administration, even suggesting that “it’s possible” millions of people cast votes illegally for Hillary Clinton.“No, it’s not! It’s not possible that millions of people voted illegally and nobody noticed!” exclaimed Meyers. “And it is wildly irresponsible to claim that it is possible. Stop saying ‘Everything is possible!’ You’re chief of staff, not Kevin Garnett!”“The scariest thing about these false conspiracy theories is that a lot of people believe them,” said Meyers, who oddly failed to mention the recent Pizzagate incident that occurred over the weekend, where a gunman fired off a shot inside a Washington, D.C. pizzeria while apparently investigating an online conspiracy theory that the pizzeria was the site of a child sex trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton and John Podesta. The ridiculous claim—which, for anyone with a functioning brain, is too stupid to write, let alone believe—originated on right-wing websites and was pushed by, yup, Infowars, as well as Michael Flynn Jr., the son and chief of staff of Gen. Michael Flynn, who is Trump’s pick for national security adviser. Flynn Jr. also has a presidential transition email address, though it’s unclear exactly why.
Meyers next tackled foreign policy, “because in a little over a month, Trump will be in charge of our relationships with the rest of the world. And when you’re dealing with major foreign powers and conflicts in unstable regions, facts do matter—whether you believe in them or not.”
He then brought up Trump’s phone call with the president of Taiwan—something no American president has done in nearly 40 years, and which increased diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China. “Whatever your thoughts are on China, it’s a delicate, important relationship. For example, we need their help dealing with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. So any action that China might see as provocative should be done only after a long period of careful study and consideration—or, if you’re Trump, you could just say, screw it, let’s piss them off right away and see what happens,” said Meyers.
There’s also Trump’s phone call with Pakistan, in which he told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that he would “love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people,” despite expressing these sentiments:
“Trump also shocked diplomats when he reportedly praised controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, whose government has been accused of running death squads in a bloody war against drug dealers that has killed thousands of people. Duterte said Trump told him on the call that he was conducting his drug war ‘the right way,’” said Meyers.The late-night host then reminded viewers that, when Obama criticized Duterte for human-rights abuses, the strongman politician called the U.S. president the “son of a whore.”
Cue Meyers: “Keep it up and we might just elect you president of the United States!”
