John Oliver says he knew President Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin “went so badly” when even Fox News reported that the Russian president had “steamrolled” Trump.
Oliver opened his monologue last night for Last Week Tonight by replaying a clip from Fox News from Friday in which a reporter on the scene in Alaska “couldn’t put a positive spin on it.”
Jacqui Heinrich, Fox News’ senior White House correspondent, said live on air on Friday that it sure looked to her like Putin had the upper hand.
“The way that it felt in the room—um was not, not good,” Heinrich said in a clip Oliver replayed Sunday night. “It did not seem like things went well, and it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled. Got right into what he wanted to say. And got his photo next to the president. And then left.”
Oliver agreed wholeheartedly.
“And while the White House later released this black-and-white photo of Trump looking tough while talking to Putin, it does seem like the vibe was more accurately summed up by this AP photo,” Oliver added, pointing at the photo “of Putin looking confident and Trump looking like that room-temperature shrimp is coming back up.”
Even Fox News’ Media Buzz host Howard Kurtz concluded on his show Sunday morning that “it was clear not much was accomplished.”
Trump fired back at critics Sunday night in a series of Truth Social posts before a scheduled meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and major European leaders on Monday.
