Trevor Noah and Jimmy Kimmel have a good laugh at Trump's 'Toiletwatergate' clogging scandal

published 11 February 2022

We already knew that former President Donald trump "had a habit of tearing up the documents at the White House," Jimmy Kimmel said on Thursday's Kimmel Live. "Well, the papyrus has thickened, because according to a book written by the highly esteemed Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, the White House engineer — who's kind of the White House plumber, I guess — would frequently be called in to unclog the president's toilet, because he had a habit of flushing papers down it, for real."

Trump denied the clogged-toilet story from "Mar-a-Clogo," calling it "categorically untrue and simply made up" to sell books, Kimmel said. But added to all of Trump's other document mishandling, "how great would it be if this is what finally brings Trump down, toilet water? It's Toiletwatergate, is what it is."

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Yes, "according to reports, Trump would rip up papers after he read them" and "he took boxes of material with him to Mar-a-Lago," but flushing them down the toilet is "the most Trump thing that he possibly could have done with some of these documents," Trevor Noah said on The Daily Show. The National Archives has asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump's habitual mishandling of official documents, he added, and "at this point I'm wondering if there are any laws that Trump hasn't broken. Like, if there was a Guinness Book of World Records for crime, he'd probably steal the book."

Still, "I know it's easy for us to all go, 'Trump was trying to obstruct justice!'" Noah said. But remember, there was a toilet paper shortage at the start of the pandemic, "and I don't know about you guys, but when there's no toilet paper, state documents start to look mighty tempting. It also does explain why Trump was always complaining about toilets," he added, playing some clips. "I mean, everyone assumed he was a man who clogged the White House toilets, but no one ever thought we'd have to ask the question: 'But with what?'"

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.