Stephen Colbert began Monday's monologue by joking that unlike the federal government, he was ending his (holiday) shutdown of The Late Show. He recapped how we got to Day 17 of the government shutdown, starting with President Trump being goaded by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh into refusing to sign bipartisan legislation he'd said he would sign. "So Trump shut down the federal government, citing Federalist Paper 58 — and I'm paraphrasing: Bawk-bawk-bawk-begawk," he said. Colbert had some fun pointing out that despite Trump's claims, no living ex-president told him to build a wall and former President Obama did not build one around his house.
Colbert also rolled his eyes at Trump's coming prime-time address on his so-called national emergency, and at the president's bizarre appropriations of Game of Thrones memes. Still, "I can understand why Trump loves that Game of Thrones wall," he said, "because the only walkers who got through were white."
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