Seth Meyers sharply deflates President Trump's dealmaking pretensions

On Monday's Late Night, Seth Meyers showed a devastating highlight reel of President Trump bragging about his dealmaking prowess on the campaign trail. "Health care was the first test of Trump's supposed dealmaking skills, and it went up in flames," he noted. Trump's team is explaining his "inability to get a deal done" by insisting that Washington is more "broken" than Trump had assumed, Meyers said, and that "the man who claimed he could fix Washington had done everything he could to get a deal."

"So now that the dealmaking skills Trump spent the entire campaign bragging about have turned out to be a complete sham, is the president at least willing to admit that he failed to deliver on a key campaign promise?" Meyer asked. "Of course not." Trump insisted, falsely, that he never claimed he would repeal and replace ObamaCare right away, then asserted that he is just a "team player" — though Meyers pointed out that a day before his "team player" defense Trump had told Time magazine that he can't be doing badly because he's president and they're not.

"In fact, Trump seems to be looking for literally anyone else to take the blame for the collapse of a health-care bill he enthusiastically supported," Meyers said, including, it seems, Paul Ryan. He pointed to Trump's cryptic tweet Saturday morning urging people to watch Jeanine Pirro on Fox News Saturday night — a segment that began with Pirro demanding Ryan step down and insisting that Trump was a hapless victim of the GOP health-care debacle. "Not only is she saying what Trump wants to hear, she's saying it the way Trump wants to hear it: Slow, and with a thick New York accent," Meyers said. "Also, people did expect Trump to understand the process," because Trump said so, repeatedly.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up

Meyers played video proof from last summer's Republican convention, pausing at Trump's dramatic shrug. "Look at that face," he said. "That's like the freeze-frame of a '90s sitcom dad at the end of an episode." And if you don't see it, Meyers hilariously illustrated the point. Asked about the Pirro tweet, Trump's aides said he was just promoting a show he likes. "Trump's team is now defending him by saying he likes to recommend TV shows," Meyers said, imagining how that might go: "'Mr. Trump, tell us about your health-care plan.' 'Well, just check out tonight's episode of The Walking Dead.'" Watch below. Peter Weber