Stephen Colbert recaps Trump's 80-minute State of the Union in 15 minutes, with jokes
President Trump gave his second State of the Union address Tuesday night, and it "was not a particularly good speech," Stephen Colbert said on a live post-speech Late Show. "But what it lacked in quality it made up in length. This speech was like watching paint lie." Still, "early in the evening, I had high hopes," he added, "especially when CNN teased us with this graphic: 'Trump Leaves White House Soon.'"
The Democratic women wore suffragette white to the speech, "so the Democratic side was a sea of white — and the Republican side, also a sea of white," Colbert said. Trump "started with a call for bipartisanship," then "took a moment to tout American greatness," and bragged about the "hot" economy, he recapped, slipping into his Trump voice: "It is so hot, if it wasn't my economy, perhaps I'd be dating it."
As "the evening went on, and on," Colbert said, "it was pretty raucous on the Republican side," but Democrats got "a not-so-subtle threat" from Trump. He paraphrased: "You heard me, you get the truth or a functioning economy, okay? Keep in mind, I turned this sucker off for a month over a wall. You think I won't burn this place to the ground to stay out of jail? ... You can't have investigation and legislation. Who ever heard of law and order? Come on."
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"Trump was bravely willing to take credit for any good thing that happened in the country," including getting Democratic women elected to Congress," Colbert laughed. The president also announced he's meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un on Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam — "unless my bone spurs act up, in which case I'm sending Eric." Trump "brought it all home with a simple plea" to "choose greatness, no matter the trials we face," and Colbert agreed. "Well in that case, sir, I choose you face a trial because that will be great." 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.
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