Advocates of ensuring lifetime heath care for the first responders on Sept. 11, 2001, have been working for years to get Congress to fund the benefit. "It was a no-brainer, and eventually they got Congress to wrap their no-brains around it," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. "Today, Donald Trump held a ceremony in the Rose Garden to sign the bill — it was a good thing done by a terrible person, like when Vlad the Impaler would give each of his victims a Starbucks gift card."
"Like he has in other recent speeches, Trump had a hard time making the word sounds," Colbert said, but when he got his pronunciation under control, "Trump told the first responders he didn't only stand with them now, he also stood with them then." Literally. "Trump can't help but insert himself into everything," he said, breaking out his Trump impersonation: "I just watched Endgame, great movie, the Iron Man and the fat Thor, and I was there, too. I don't consider myself an Avenger, because I was rooting for Thanos — he had some good ideas."
"To stand there, to claim that while you're not a first responder, you were down there with them after 9/11, has got to be the worst thing I've ever heard — if he hadn't already said this," Colbert said, playing a clip from 2016 and resuming his Trump voice: "Yes, I helped out a little bit on 7/11. Of course, that was in July so things were fine. So, so glad I wasn't there on 9/11, I hear it was not good." Watch below. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Bluetoothing: the phenomenon driving HIV spike in FijiUnder the Radar ‘Blood-swapping’ between drug users fuelling growing health crisis on Pacific island
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
