Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah puzzle out Trump's post-Mueller strategy of turning 'cartoon villain'
President Trump has been "living it up since the Barr report on the Mueller report totally cleared him of half the charges," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show. "That is a huge boost, and you can see it in his approval ratings" — which are unchanged, except that a 43 percent plurality said Mueller's report made them view Trump less favorably. "So let me get this straight," he said: "After finding out that he did not collude with the Russians, people liked him less?"
Still, after being pummeled on the Mueller investigation for two years, Trump "finally has a chance to get on America's good side," Colbert said. "Step 1: Take away everyone's health care, because Trump is trying to kill ObamaCare — again." Seriously, "how dumb is this guy?" he asked. "In the midterms he got his ass kicked because health care was the top issue for voters."
"But it's not just health care," Colbert said: Trump also wants to end aid to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. And "if you want cartoon-villain bad," look no further than Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' plan to slash $7 billion from education programs — and cut all federal funding for the Special Olympics. "Now, obviously it would be easy to that that's evil — but it would also be accurate."
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Zeroing-out Special Olympics funding "just sounds mean, right?" Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. "Because here's the thing: The $18 million that they're going to save isn't even that much money for a government. It's actually what the government spends for Trump to visit Mar-a-Lago five times. ... So at the very least, you could compromise on this issue: Send the kids to Mar-a-Lago and make Donald run for once in his life."
"In four days, Trump has gone after sick people, special-needs kids, and hurricane victims," Noah said. "I feel like right now, baby seals are like, 'Well, we had a good run, folks.'" For a different perspective on "Trump being a total a--hole," Noah brought out an expert, Michael Kosta. 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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