President Trump is insisting that the diplomats and world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly were laughing with him, not at him, when he used his global platform to claim he had accomplished more than any previous U.S. president. "What did you experience, as someone in the room?" Stephen Colbert asked New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday's Late Show. "Are you trying to create a diplomatic incident here, right now?" she asked, laughing. "Maybe I'm going to defuse one right now," Colbert replied.
The first laugh was "a spontaneous murmur amongst some people," Ardern said carefully, but after Trump said he hadn't expected that "little" laugh, "then people laughed with him." "That is very diplomatically stated," Colbert said. "No war between the United States and New Zealand, then." They went on to talk about how Ardern's partner nearly caused his own international incident while she was discussing steel tariffs with Trump, Colbert's obsession with Lord of the Rings, and the sometimes-awkward accessibility of New Zealand's head of government.
Also on Wednesday's show, Colbert grilled actress Candice Bergen about her date with Trump when both were about 18 years old. "I was home very early," she said, adding that Henry Kissinger had been a better date. You can watch that, and her preview of the Murphy Brown reboot and magical childhood, 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.
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
-
Quiz of The Week: 22 – 28 NovemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures Ready for lift-off, the odd one out, and more
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
