Late night hosts try to find some humor in Trump's newly unleashed, vindictive banana republicanism

Late night hosts on Trump&#039;s revenge campaign

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/Late Night, Full Frontal, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Daily Show)

last updated 13 February 2020

President Trump "really has had a helluva week already," Jimmy Kimmel said on Wednesday's Kimmel Live. "He is doing everything he can to obstruct justice again. Last night he lashed out at the judge on the case against his friend and adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering." At this rate, Trump is "going for a three-peach," he joked. "Trump met with the president of Ecuador today, but almost all the questions were about this new crusade he's on to punish those who opposed him and make sure all his criminal friends get off the hook."

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Trump has been "busy enacting revenge like a Dumpster Uma Thurman in Kill Bill," Samantha Bee said on Full Frontal, firing "key impeachment witnesses" and, in "a transparently vindictive move," the twin brother of witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. "This retaliation intimidates future witnesses from coming forward to report wrongdoing — it's the kind of thing that dictators do," Bee said. Trump's now "using the power of the federal government to take down his perceived enemies," not just people but also "entire states," she said. "In fact, some of the only people living without fear right now are Trump's convicted cronies."

What happened with Stone "is actually crazy," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show. "The Justice Department recommended seven to nine years in prison. Trump then tweets that their recommendation is too harsh, so they then cancel their recommendation, and then Trump says he's totally staying out of it. That's not what he did. ... And not only was it totally wrong for Trump to get involved in his friend's case, it was also totally unnecessary, because if there's one person who looks like he can break out of prison on his own," Noah joked, it's Roger Stone.

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"Trump is stoking a constitutional crisis at the Justice Department by interfering in criminal cases, protecting his cronies, retaliating against his enemies, using the government as a political weapon, talking like a thug and a dictator," and that's just this week, Seth Meyers said at Late Night. Trump "insisted both that he hadn't directed the Justice Department to go easy on Stone and also that he had 'the absolute right' to do it." He doesn't, Meyers said, but now "the 2020 election is really the last chance we have to stop our system from fully sliding into a corrupt banana republic." 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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