Stephen Colbert thinks he's figured out why Trump is helping China's ZTE, and it looks way worse than leaking

Stephen Colbert has a Eureka moment on Trump and China

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

"There is just so much news coming out of the White House these days, and some of it they actually want you to know — that news is called leaks, and right now the Trump administration is obsessed with them," Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday's Late Show. Neither the White House nor staffer Kelly Sadler has publicly apologized for the leaked comment about Sen. John McCain "dying anyway," he noted. "In fact, White House officials seem more upset that the story leaked than that Sadler said it." How do we know that? It leaked.

"This White House is so leaky, there are even leaks about why they're leaking," Colbert said, running through some of the reasons — and how one leaker gets away with it by using other staffers' idioms in leaks to throw the White House off the scent. That leaker "added: 'Sad! Witch hunt! Fake news! I want to sleep with a porn star. I wish I was married to Sean Hannity,'" Colbert joked.

The president is incoherently furious, but "I don't get why Trump even cares about leaks, because these days he's not even trying to hide his dirt anymore," Colbert said. Everyone was baffled when Trump announced he's working to save "jobs in China" by helping phone maker ZTE, "the exact opposite of everything he has ever said — what's next, short ties?" he asked. But curiously "Trump tweeted out that announcement a mere 72 hours after the Chinese government agreed to put a half a billion dollars into an Indonesian project that will personally enrich — any guesses? — Donald Trump. He's not even trying to be subtle."

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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.