Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah dissect Trump's excuse for negotiating Trump Tower Moscow in 2016

Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah on Trump Tower Moscow

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Late Show, The Daily Show)

published 30 November 2018

Stephen Colbert kicked off Thursday's Late Show with a Beatles reference. "I read the news today, oh boy!" he said. "Because Robert Mueller is getting closer and closer to his prey. It's a true game of cat and large, slow-moving man," and the star of the show on Thursday was Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump's Russian business dealings, Colbert said, a "serious offense" that could send him to jail "or to the Supreme Court."

The lie Cohen admitted to was about negotiating a Trump Tower Moscow deal until right before the 2016 Republican National Convention, not up to January 2016, as he had told the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Why would Cohen lie about that?" Colbert asked. "Well, he didn't want people to think Trump was in bed with the Russians, because nobody wants to be in that Russian bed." ("It's got pee-pee in it," he added.) Trump tried to explain at great lengths why there was nothing wrong with negotiating to build a lucrative tower in the capital of America's nuclear-armed adversary while clinching his party's nomination for president, and Colbert mostly just let him talk. And talk.

At The Daily Show, Trevor Noah compared Trump's rambling explanation to a choose-your-own-adventure book, and Trump eventually landed on the real question: "Why deal with Russia at all while you're running for president of the United States? Why not just avoid the conflict all together?" And Trump's answer — "he also thought that he would lose" — was actually very persuasive, Noah said. "I would have told him to do the same thing," to expand his business because there's no way he was going to win. "But still, man, you have to see how shady this is," he added. "No president in modern history has run for office while also working a side hustle." Watch below. Peter Weber

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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.