Late night hosts have complicated emotions about John Bolton's Trump bombshells, but not Aunt Jemima

late night hosts on John Bolton's book
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show, The Daily Show)

President Trump's attempts to block former National Security Adviser John Bolton's tell-all from hitting shelves "ain't gonna work," Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday's Late Show, holding up his own advance copy, one of hundreds. Still, he said, "you can see why Trump is so desperate to kill this book. Because this afternoon, several newspapers published excerpts, and — I can't believe I'm saying this — it's worse that even I imagined." He ran through some of Bolton's revelations, rising from "amoral idiocy" to "just downright evil." Still, he said, "I doubt Trump would ever 'execute' a journalist. He'd ask Jared to have his Saudi friends do it."

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"Trump is, in his own unique way, breathtakingly dumb," Late Night's Seth Meyers said, primarily referring to Trump's administration-wide "coronavirus coverup." And don't cry for Bolton, who "courageously hid behind his mustache rather than testify in Trump's impeachment trial," he said. "There's no one — no one — to root for in a Trump versus Bolton fight. They're both megalomaniac sociopaths looking out for themselves. It's a real Alien vs. Predator, except all you need to do to stop Alien Trump is install a ramp."

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Meanwhile, "Republicans are mad at Bolton for writing a book that's critical of Trump," Jimmy Fallon said at The Tonight Show. "That's why the blurb on the back just says 'No one is happy about this.' — Everyone." Fallon said he wasn't too upset to see Aunt Jemima scrapped, but "Trump was bummed, because Aunt Jemima was the only black woman in his cabinet."

The Late Show canceled other (imaginary) racist syrup brands.

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"That's right, after 130 years, it is officially time to pour one out for Aunt Jemima," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show, running through the brand's racist history, with early ads "so racist, Trump's probably gonna appoint one to attorney general." Bolton's book, meanwhile, is now No. 1 on Amazon, thanks to Trump's amazingly "shortsighted" suppression efforts, he noted, but "the stuff that's been leaking out of this book is pretty wild." Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter Weber, The Week US

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.