Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel aren't thrilled about Trump amping up his North Korea hellfire threats, have suggestions
After President Trump ad-libbed his threat to bury North Korea under "fire and fury" this week, "the adults around Trump tried to tamp down that rhetoric," starting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Seth Meyers said on Thursday's Late Night. He didn't find Tillerson's advice all that soothing. "Sleep well tonight?" he said. "We haven't been sleeping well since November. Tossing and turning has officially passed baseball as America's pastime."
Other aides suggested that everybody just kind of ignore Trump's threat, so naturally, Trump doubled down, saying maybe his first threat wasn't tough enough. "Not tough enough? What would be tougher than 'fire and fury'? 'Fire and fury and bees'? 2 Fire 2 Furious?" He noted that the whole improvised threat was apparently because Trump was looking at an opioid fact sheet, which he relied on for his sage advice on beating the opioid crisis. "You know, if you don't want people to start taking drugs, stop making them think the end of the world is imminent," Meyers said.
Jimmy Kimmel was also a little nervous on Thursday's Kimmel Live, playing Trump's doubling-down comments from the afternoon. "Basically, we've given Donald Trump a big red button that says 'Do Not Press,' and now we're all sitting around hoping he doesn't press it," he said. "I'm seriously starting to wonder if there isn't a wire loose in Trump's head — he's drunk with power right now. Or maybe he's just drunk, I don't know." Trump doesn't drink, but Kimmel slowed Trump's comments down to half speed, and you could be excused for thinking otherwise.
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Meanwhile, Trump is busy retweeting Twitter polls saying that he's a better president than Barack Obama. "It's really tragic, if you think about it," Kimmel said. "This is a man with a billion dollars, a massive real estate empire, a beautiful, healthy family, the most important job in the world — he's still so needy and insecure he has to retweet a sad, fake online poll. It's actually heartbreaking if you think about it. Somebody needs to give him a hug and tell him he's doing the best that he can before he kills everyone on Guam."
Not that Trump seems too focused. "We're facing a possible nuclear attack and our president is having a Katy-Perry-type Twitter feud with Mitch McConnell," Kimmel said. But he had a simple idea that could solve all our problems. 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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