John Oliver explains why the NRA loves Trump's arm-the-teachers idea, and teachers hate it

John Oliver trashes Trump arm-the-teachers proposal
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

Last week, the U.S. continued its post-Parkland discussion of gun laws, "but don't worry, because the president has said that he is determined to stop this from ever happening again, and he even gave us a glimpse of his new plan," John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. President Trump introduced his unfortunate idea to arm 20 percent of America's teachers with some unfortunate phrasing, Oliver noted. "'You're going to be dead, and it's going to be fast' is already the slogan for Carl's Jr., so you can't use that."

"Trump's support for this clearly terrible idea seemed to develop over the week," Oliver said. "He actually focus-grouped it on Wednesday during a listening session featuring survivors of the shooting," and it went down like a lead balloon — not that Trump seemed to notice. "That is Donald Trump in a nutshell: proposing a terrible idea in a tone-deaf way, then refusing to acknowledge he just lost the popular vote," he said.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

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.