Trevor Noah laughs, cringes at the thing that finally made Trump angry at Russia

All the chaos in the White House and Congress this week — the hearings, the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the backlash — is "because of the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia," Trevor Noah noted on Thursday's Daily Show. "So, if you were Donald Trump right now, what's the one thing you would stay away from?" Russia, of course, but more specifically, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, "the specific guy who got Michael Flynn fired and made Jeff Sessions have to recuse himself from the Russia investigation," Noah said. "If there's one person you don't want any more ties to, it's this guy."

So of course on Wednesday, only a few hours after he fired Comey, Trump hosted Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House. "You brought Russians into the Oval Office?" Noah asked. "Although, Trump is so oblivious, who knows if he even realizes what a big deal this is?" The meeting was set up at the instance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he noted, sighing: "You know, it's starting to feel less like Putin's blackmailing Trump and more like he has Trump hypnotized."

On the other hand, "Donald Trump may be crazy, but it turns out he's not stupid," Noah said. "You see, he knew that this would look bad, so he didn't allow any American journalists into the room — no photos, no documentation, no pics, so it didn't happen." Except, well, he let Russian state media in, and they shared the photos, making the White House — as CNN reports — furious, because the Russians lied. "Aw, bless your soul, Trump. I can't believe how innocent Trump's people are," Noah concern-trolled. "How are you shocked that they lied. How?"

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

"Russia is owning Donald Trump so hard right now, it's embarrassing," he said. "It's like watching the Harlem Globetrotters — did you have to dunk on him and pull his pants down, man?" After this stunt, "I don't want to hear another word about how it was only the DNC that got hacked because Team Trump is so smart and secure," he added. "Because Russia just proved that if they want to hack and leak some dirt on Trump, they can do it face to face without him even noticing." He ended with a short X-Files parody. Watch below. Peter Weber