Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Seth Meyers bemusedly check in on Trump's government shutdown

Late-night comedians mock Trump over the government shutdown — (Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Late Show, Late Night, The Daily Showive, The Daily Show)

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."

The wall is "just one of the lead characters in Game of Thrones, it's also President Trump's most famous campaign promise," Trevor Noah said on The Daily Show. And if he couldn't fund it when Republicans controlled Congress, that won't change with Democrats running the House. "I bet Trump is just hoping that if it goes on long enough, America can't afford to have another election and then he can just keep on being president," Noah suggested. He tried to lift everyone's spirits by making Michael Kosta dress up as a panda, briefly.

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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.