The first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was on Monday night, and on Monday night's Daily Show, Trevor Noah breathed a sigh of relief. "The waiting is finally over," he said. "After a year of subtweeting each other on the campaign trail," he said, "finally, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went head-to-head." After all the debate prep and head games, the debate lived up to expectations, getting pretty fiery at some points, with Clinton and Trump just shouting over each other. "Welcome to the real-life version of Twitter, people," Noah said. "You know that at that point, Lester Holt wasn't even moderating anymore, he was just eating popcorn with everyone else."
Noah spent most of his instant recap focused on Trump, and some Trump statements really stood out, like when Trump appeared to brag about avoiding taxes, saying paying zero federal income tax "makes me smart." "I'm sorry, what?" Noah said. "Dude, taxes are a responsibility not something to evade. You know, you're running to be the No. 1 citizen of a country, you shouldn't brag about ways you found to get around the rules.... You know who else found a way around the rules? O.J. No one likes him."
When it came to race relations, Noah said, "this might have been my favorite part of the evening — it turns out, the only way Donald Trump can truly relate to any issue in America is by whether or not he has a property in that place." After playing a few clips, he said, "Donald Trump relates to America like he's playing a game of Monopoly — 'Yeah, I have that street, I know what it's like there.'"
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Finally, Noah pointed to Trump's Achilles heel, "a little thing I like to call Truth Trump." Whenever Trump speaks, Noah explained, "every now and again, Truth Trump comes out — he can't control it." He used as an example Trump saying he doesn't run negative ads "because he's trying to save the money — not because he's a good person," as he should have said. Noah demonstrated by acting out a split personality, Gollum-like: "'Truth Trump, shut up!' 'I can't control it. I need to build a wall in my mind folks!'" He arched an eyebrow at Trump's sniffing, but said "we didn't watch the debate just to make jokes about it. We wanted to do our part to keep the candidates honest." Still, when he asked Senior Campaign Correspondent Roy Wood Jr. to fact-check the debate, things got out of control fast. Watch below. Peter Weber
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in ZürichThe Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
