Late Night Tackles Trump versus the NFL
Stephen Colbert has some fun with Trump's ho-hum Eagles-less 'Celebration of America'
On Monday night, President Trump disinvited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from a White House celebration, saying — falsely — that they had kneeled during the national anthem, Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday's Late Show. "So Donald Trump is blaming a group of black guys for something they didn't do? They'll have to rename the Eagles the Central Park 53. But Fox News never lets the truth get in the way of a good story," Colbert said, showing photos of Eagles praying before the game while suggesting they were taking a knee in protest. "It's an honest mistake," Colbert said. "Fox News also thought this picture was Jesus calling a touchdown."
Since the Eagles did not actually protest the anthem, Colbert suggested that Trump canceled the event because only two or three Eagles players, the owner, and the mascot were planning to attend — and Trump is scared of eagles. "So it's crazy, but here's the extra crazy sauce," he added: Trump didn't cancel the event, he just changed it into a "Celebration of America." "Now there's an idea," Colbert deadpanned. "A celebration of America and all it stands for right in the middle of the summer! I think this could work: Let's get some fireworks, maybe a big parade, call it the Fifth of June!"
But Trump held the event, Colbert said, and "how much does he love America? He knew most of the words to 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and a couple of the words to 'God Bless America.'" He engaged in some amateur lip-reading of what Trump was actually singing/humming during the Irving Berlin classic, laughed at Philadelphia's mayor calling Trump a "fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size," but threw a flag at the mayor's chief of staff comparing the Eagles' Super Bowl celebration crowd size to Trump's inauguration: "That's a personal foul — totally necessary roughness! First down!" Watch below. Peter Weber