Seth Meyers looks at Trump's sad week, wonders if he's tired of losing yet
President Trump had a pretty rough week, watching his "latest travel ban blocked yet again by a judge, his health-care bill start to fall apart, and his wiretapping claims debunked," even by members of his own party, Seth Meyers said on Thursday's Late Night. Then Trump made things even worse with a draconian budget blueprint that slashes services for the poor and for his own supporters.
"Trump keeps on stumbling, on everything," Meyers said, and yet he "keeps insisting that he's getting so much done." In his campaign rally on Wednesday night, for example, the president claimed he has accomplished more in his first 50 days than any president before him. Meyers was skeptical. "Trump has done more in office the way a toddler helps out in the kitchen," he said. "He may be trying, but by the time he leaves there's snot on the fridge and a shoe in the dishwasher."
Meyers noted some ways Trump seems to be explaining his losses to himself — spinning incoherent conspiracy theories ("You're so paranoid about wiretapping that you talk like a mafia don afraid the feds are listening," Meyers said), trotting out the greatest hits from his campaign ("Wow, you guys are still doing 'Lock her up!'" he marveled. "But hey, I get it. When you go see Billy Joel, you want to hear 'Piano Man'"), and suggesting his supporters might be kind of stupid. "So Trump keeps losing, and yet he still doesn't seem to understand why he keeps losing," Meyers said.
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This brought him to Trump's budget, unveiled on Thursday, which cuts everything but military spending and border security. On the chopping block are the EPA and National Endowment for the Arts, which Meyers wasn't surprised about: "The only art you like are paintings of yourself where they take out the neck fat." But the elimination of community block grants, including one of their best-known programs, did seem shocking. "Meals on Wheels?" he asked. "How dead inside do you have to be to not want old people to get food? Your heart is so small, it makes your tiny hands look like catcher mitts." Then he got a little personal. Watch below. Peter Weber
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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.
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