"Leading up to the election, [President] Trump's a little nervous, so he's tried everything to scare his base into voting for Republicans, and today he spoke about a threat to the one thing most precious to him: money," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show. Trump is warning that if Democrats are elected, the markets will go down. Economists and market analysts say that's not what's going on, but what Trump's doing, "I think that's called extortion," Colbert said, switching into Trump voice: "Look, I'm just gonna say, real nice economy you got here, I'd hate to see something happen to it. I'm just saying, I've stuffed the Dow with oily rags and my son Eric loves to play with matches."
From a comedy standpoint, the best part of Trump's economic fearmongering is that he bases his expertise in macroeconomics on his hosting a reality show, Colbert said. But his vow on Twitter that birthright citizenship "will be ended one way or another" had a darker edge. "Is he threatening babies?" he asked. Trump's newest round of caravan fearmongering, meanwhile, includes tweets to the caravanning migrants. Colbert was bemused: "Does he think the folks in the caravan are reading his tweets?"
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