President Trump has been flailing as he tries to strike the right tone on the hurricanes battering the U.S., but he's also creating his own disasters, Seth Meyers said on Thursday's Late Night. Mostly, Meyers was talking about Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program, effective in six months, probably. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) did not want the DACA hot potato and said Trump shouldn't end the program last week — then, after Trump decided to end it, said the president had done the right thing. Meyers sighed. "Paul Ryan flips so much he should be at Sea World," he said.
So once again, Ryan and other GOP leaders "traded in their dignity and changed their minds to line up behind Trump," Meyers said, "and instead of rewarding them for their loyalty, just hours later Trump threw all of them under the bus out of nowhere by saying he might change his mind on DACA." Now it's unclear what Trump wants, except for Congress to fix the problem. "Trump's 'Pottery Barn rule' is: If I break it, Paul Ryan buys it," Meyers said. After sowing DACA confusion, Trump tweeted a message to DREAMers on Thursday telling them not to worry, at the suggestion of his new pal Nancy Pelosi. Meyers congratulated Pelosi on her obviously strong Jedi mind-trick powers.
Trump's DACA confusion is par for the course for a president with a shaky-at-best grasp of policy, Meyers said. When it comes to tax policy, for example, Trump "sounds like a regional theater actor who blanked on his lines." Meyers acted that out using Hamlet's famous speech. He ended with a disturbing guess as to what is going through Trump's mind, and you can watch below. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
-
Groypers: the alt-right group pulled into the foregroundThe Explainer The network is led by alt-right activist Nick Fuentes
-
10 concert tours to see this upcoming fallThe Week Recommends Concert tour season isn't over. Check out these headliners.
-
How to put student loan payments on pauseThe Explainer If you are starting to worry about missing payments, deferment and forbearance can help
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in ZürichThe Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
