Late night hosts catch up on Trump donning a mask, trashing Fauci, threatening school kids

Late night hosts on Trump's mask
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Late Show, Late Night, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show )

Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing across the U.S., "but don't worry, because the White House is working hard on an aggressive new plan — to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. White House officials said they're "concerned" at how often the nation's top infectious disease expert had been wrong about the new coronavirus, and Colbert had some bad news for them about President Trump's record.

"With coronavirus surging across the nation, parents are wondering how — and if — schools will be able to reopen in the fall," Colbert said. "Trump's behind in every national poll, so he is desperate for the schools to reopen," going so far as threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that don't completely reopen. "Understandably, there are some concerns about returning to school, such as, you know, the dying stuff," he said, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' answers on Sunday's talk shows were not reassuring.

The Late Show illustrated the DeVos school fight with a "Tragic School Bus" cartoon.

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At least "Trump finally put a mask on," Trevor Noah said at The Daily Show, though for the Trump fans "who have been mocking face masks this whole time," this "must be like seeing Trump at a Black Lives Matter march with AOC." For everyone else, it's "positively insane" that "Donald Trump is spending more time trying to defeat Dr. Fauci than defeating the coronavirus," he said. "This is the same person who was thinking about bleaching his lungs, and now he's trying to point his tiny fingers at Dr. Fauci?"

"Well, if Trump is looking to discredit one of his top medical experts, he must be getting his coronavirus information from a source that's even more esteemed," Jimmy Fallon deadpanned on The Tonight Show, sighing the name "Chuck Woolery. For those of you who don't know him, he's a crazy ex-TV host with a bunch of ex-wives who loves conspiracy theories — and now he's retweeting Chuck Woolery. It's not good we're getting medical advice from the former host of The Apprentice, who's getting it from the former host of Love Connection."

Let's face it, "the U.S. is an object of horror and humiliation across the world as our coronavirus pandemic spins further out of control and a desperate president tries to force students and teachers back to school without a plan to keep them safe," Seth Meyers said at Late Night. He took a closer look at Trump's cognitive test, Mary Trump's tell-all, and much more. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.