Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah nervously explore what Trump could do if he declares a national emergency

Stephen Colbert kicked off Tuesday's Late Show by giving a shout-out to his "warm-up act tonight, Donald Trump, America's favorite funnyman." He taped the show before Prsident Trump's prime-time Oval Office address, so "by the time this is broadcast, we're either in a brand new state of emergency — or the same one we've been in since November of 2016," he said. It turns out, Trump said nothing new. "I think Trump gave that speech because he misses being on prime-time television," he suggested.

Based on polling, "Trump faces an uphill battle selling his version of the shutdown," Colbert said. But people are worried that Trump will declare a national emergency that would "allow him to construct a border wall without congressional approval," something "right up Trump's ally — remember, he got elected without the voters' approval."

"It's not like other presidents haven't declared national emergencies before — they've done it for lots of things," Trevor Noah said on The Daily Show. "What they don't do is declare an emergency just to win a policy fight with Congress. So the question we need to answer is: Is Trump even allowed to do this?" The Supreme Court ruled in the 1930s that a national emergency "must be urgent, infrequent, and unexpected," Noah said, and "none of these things apply to illegal immigration." But "the Supreme Court doesn't get to weigh in immediately," he added, listing some of the crazy and frightening things Trump could do before they check him.

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The founders and Congress gave presidents space to react to actual emergencies because they assumed "the president would be somebody responsible and trustworthy and potty-trained," Noah said. "They didn't think there'd be a President Trump. ... Which goes back to what we've been saying about Trump for a very long time: He's basically the black light on American democracy," exposing all the flaws that nobody noticed before. There are some probably NSFW parts. Watch below. Peter Weber