Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trevor Noah want to congratulate Trump on the al-Baghdadi raid, but...
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State leader killed Saturday by U.S. Special Forces, was "a notorious terrorist responsible for the death of thousands, a true monster," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show, thanking all the brave service members "who risked their lives and got this job done." Colbert said he "would also like to congratulate President Donald J. Trump, but he just makes it so damned hard, because when he broke the news yesterday morning, Trump's entire press conference was about himself."
"Yes, Trump was obsessed — you might say he had al-Baghdadi issues," Colbert joked. Trump's description of the raid "got pretty graphic," and then he started comparing al-Baghdadi's death with the Special Forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden, he sighed. "You know how I know that killing bin Laden was a big deal? Because Barack Obama never had to say that killing bin Laden was a big deal. It was a big deal. So was this," he added. "Killing Baghdadi was a big deal. It was bigger than the bin Laden announcement in one way: length. Trump delivered a 50-minute performance compared to Obama's nine-minute speech. Keep in mind, that was Obama, so you know four minutes of that speech was 'uh ... look ...'"
"We thought it might be fun to mash-up Trump's speech about al-Baghdadi with Obama's about bin Laden," Jimmy Kimmel said on Kimmel Live, "and we were right, it was."
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"Trump is the only person who can turn a unifying occasion into a d-ck-measuring contest," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. "You don't have to pretend this guy is a bigger 'get' than bin Laden. First of all, it's childish. Secondly, he's not. Bin Laden changed the entire world forever. It's 18 years after 9/11 and I still can't take 4 ounces of lotion onto an airplane."
Noah also laughed over one aspect of Trump's description of the raid: "Yes, instead of knocking on the door and asking ISIS if they could come in, the Special Forces instead chose to blow a hole through the wall. Which must have been traumatizing for Trump to watch. He was just sitting there, like, 'No! Why did you damage that beautiful wall?'" 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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