Late Night Tackles Trump Abroad
Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah recap Trump's India adventure, vegetarian challenge, Hindi word salad
President Trump arrived in India on Monday for a state visit, and Monday's Late Show noticed he had a little trouble pronouncing Indian names.
Trump's actually really popular in India, Trevor Noah said on Monday's Daily Show. Some Indians "like him because of his anti-Muslim rhetoric, some like him because of his business savvy, and all of them like him because his skin looks like tikka masala."
"Clearly, India is trying to give Trump a memorable experience," Noah said. "There was, however, one tiny culture clash that Trump had to deal with" — Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vegetarianism. "I honestly don't know what's stranger: the fact that Trump might eat vegetables, or that people are actually worried about how it will go," he said. And "despite the beef issue," Trump "even made an effort to show the Indian people how much he respects them by trying to speak their language."
"After Trump butchered half the Hindi dictionary, Indian Twitter lost their minds," Noah said. "But to those Indians, I say: please don't be mad. Trump may not be able to pronounce Hindi words, but he can't pronounce English words, either."
Yes, "because he was in India, Trump had to prove that English isn't the only language he struggles with," Stephen Colbert said at The Late Show. But Trump also had to face the "challenge" of Modi's "plans to serve vegetarian food to the president. Oh my God, we're going to war with India!" Upon landing in India, Colbert said, "Trump's first stop was at the home of Mahatma Gandhi where he got the chance to spin a replica of the wheel that Gandhi used to make his own clothes. That's lovely — now he knows what it's like to work in one of Ivanka's factories."
Trump also visited the Taj Mahal on Monday — and described it "as too understated," James Corden joked at The Late Late Show. After the big rally, "local commentators said that Trump mispronounced the names of nearly every famous Indian official that he mentioned, as well as the name of the city was in," he added, laughing. "Basically, what you get from this is that every time Trump goes to an Indian restaurant, he just goes, 'Yeah, I'm gonna get that thing.'" Watch below. Peter Weber