Stephen Colbert offers a new name for Trump's immigration proposal, advice for Stephen Miller

President Trump took to Twitter Wednesday night to deny that he called the White House a "dump" in front of paying members of his New Jersey golf club, but Stephen Colbert kicked off Wednesday's Late Show imagining the president browsing for less dumpy digs.

In his monologue, Colbert looked askance at the Senate immigration proposal Trump championed on Wednesday morning. The bill isn't harsh because it targets illegal immigrants — it aims to cut legal immigration to the U.S. by 50 percent, he noted, imagining how that might play out in the East Wing: "Melania, honey, I got some tough news. Only 50 percent of your parents can come to Thanksgiving."

To take the sting out of the bill, its sponsors gave it a soft name, the RAISE Act, but Colbert had an alternative acronym: the Reforming American Citizenship Is Super Tough (RACIST) Act. Trump is proposing a merit-based system — "Mr. President, wherever you are today, it's not based on merit," Colbert jabbed — that favors applicants who speak English. He rolled his eyes: "Yes, immigrants have to learn proper English — like 'bigly,' 'covfefe,' and 'bing bing bing bing bing.'"

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

To defend the proposal, the White House sent out policy adviser Stephen Miller, and "it did not go well," Colbert said. "Could have gone better. He's not a people person." He ran through Miller's confrontations with CNN's Jim Acosta, and his sermon about those people worthy of a "golden ticket" to America. "Look, Miller, if you're trying to prove you're not racist, don't compare this to a movie where a guy enslaved a bunch of little orange people to work in his factory," Colbert said, adding, "#FreeOompaLoompas." Watch below. Peter Weber