Last Week Tonight segments about Donald Trump

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This article is about the Last Week Tonight segments with Donald Trump as a subject. For the episode titled "Donald Trump", see Donald Trump (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver).
Headshot of comedian John Oliver
John Oliver (pictured) has focused several segments in his Last Week Tonight show on Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, the President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, was the subject of segments featured in episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver during Trump's 2016 Republican primary and general election campaigns and presidency, most of which were discussed in the show's opening news recap segment.[1] The ones listed have received prominent coverage from other media, and feature Trump or his actions as part of the main segment.

Season 3 (2016)

Episode 3: "Donald Trump"

Main article: Donald Trump (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)

"Donald Trump" was the core part of the third season's third episode, which aired for the first time on February 28, 2016. During this time, Trump was the frontrunner for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.[2][3] Host John Oliver discusses Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and his career in business, outlining his campaign rhetoric, varying political positions and failed business ventures. He also says the Trump family name was changed at one point from the ancestral name "Drumpf".[4][3] The segment popularized the term "Donald Drumpf", which Oliver said was coined with the intent to uncouple the grandeur of the last name to facilitate Trump's supporters' ability to acknowledge his political and entrepreneurial flaws. It also started a campaign urging viewers to "Make Donald Drumpf Again"—a play on Trump's own campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again".[5][3]

Episode 6: "Border Wall"

In much of a subsequent segment that aired on March 20, 2016, three weeks after the original episode aired, Oliver talked about Trump's

Mexican government pay the cost of building the wall.[6][7][8][9] Oliver estimated that the wall would cost $25 billion, not the $4 billion that Trump originally estimated it would cost, and that maintenance costs would exceed $25 billion within seven years of the wall's construction. He even offers a counterproposal of buying a waffle iron for every American, which would be cheaper, more pleasant, "do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs" and "won't harm our relationship with our third largest trading partner."[7][8][9]

He also examines the feasibility of the wall due to a 1970 international treaty between the two countries that prohibits structures that may obstruct water flow from being built along the Rio Grande and Colorado River basins. Oliver cites the example of an existing border fence that had to be built several miles inland on the Texas side of the border—resulting in the fence having to cross onto the grounds of a Brownsville golf course—because of the law, and legal implications stemming from the fence's construction.[6] He also points to loopholes that may be used to enable migrants and drugs to enter the country illegally despite the wall's presence. Additionally, Oliver cites data that show that most Mexican-born migrants residing in the U.S. entered the latter country legally and that illegal immigrants committed violent crimes at lower rates than American citizens did, contradicting claims Trump made.[6][2]

Episode 14: "Trump University"

In part of another subsequent segment on June 5, three months after "Donald Trump" first aired, Oliver talked about Trump's business tactics at Trump University. Oliver says that the 3,500 lawsuits that Trump has been involved in would exceed the combined number of episodes of most of the attorney-centered drama series that have been produced in the history of American television. He then comments on how Trump said that Gonzalo P. Curiel (the Indiana-born presiding judge for the lawsuit centering around Trump University) should recuse himself due to his Mexican heritage.[10][11] Oliver then examines the Trump University lawsuit, and the issues that culminated in the lawsuit filing (including the tactics used in recruiting students for the real estate training program).[11][12]

Episode 21: "Sarcastic Trump"

In part of another subsequent segment on August 14, Oliver examined remarks by Donald Trump, who during the previous week had made the suggestion that supporters of the Second Amendment could stop opposing Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton from enforcing gun control policy proposals (an open-ended remark widely considered as suggesting violence against Clinton, but downplayed by Trump and many of his Republican surrogates to suggest his supporters should take political action against her) and claimed that President Barack Obama and Clinton were "the founder[s] of ISIS," citing in the latter that Obama's decision to reduce the number of U.S. ground troops in Iraq in 2013 created a governance vacuum that led to the radical Jihadist terror group's rise (although the U.S. military reduction did play a factor in its development, ISIS traces its origins to 2004, one year after the Iraq War began under the partial guidance of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, as an Iraq-based arm of al-Qaeda). Oliver said that in response to criticism of Trump, Trump had replied, "Obviously I'm being sarcastic ... but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you."[13][14]

In calling out that Trump's attempt to clarify the remark as sarcastic and Trump's repeated walking back of that justification days later, Oliver described Trump's statement as "bullshit" and a "douchebag's apology" and stated that trying to rationalize Trump's campaign is "like watching a circus seal fold laundry".[13][14] Oliver also called Trump's sarcasm "absurd", and joked about Trump's claim that Clinton was a co-founder, saying by using the show's recurring social media gag, "Hashtag #Feminism, hashtag #IsisWithHer". He also criticizes Trump's suggestion that the election would have been rigged against him if Clinton won the Electoral College and popular vote in Pennsylvania in the November 8 general election (prior to the 2016 presidential election, in which Trump carried the state in the Electoral College, no Republican presidential candidate had won Pennsylvania since 1988) and enlist his supporters to become observers to prevent electoral manipulation, arguing that it could set a dangerous precedent if his supporters question the validity of the votes and could result in intimidation tactics towards Democratic-leaning voters.[13][15]

Episode 22: "Message to Donald Trump"

In part of his August 21, 2016 episode, Oliver discussed Trump's ranking in the polls for the preceding week and the changes in his campaign staff, including the installation of Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager following the resignation of Paul Manafort upon the disclosure of his ties to the government of Russia. Oliver argued that these events were either "[signals that Trump's campaign was] hitting bottom from which he will rebound to victory" or "the beginning of the end".[16]

Oliver then examined Trump's options: losing to Hillary Clinton, whom a majority of Americans did not find trustworthy in several opinion polls at percentages almost equal to Trump, and risk ruining his own brand's image of success and wealth in part because of his rhetoric and repeated controversies during the campaign cycle; or resetting his campaign and getting elected president. Oliver argued that the latter option would be even worse for Trump than losing the election, as then he would be burdened with the responsibilities and realities of the position and be miserable about it in large part because Trump would have had to make significant changes to his extravagant and hedonistic lifestyle.[16] Oliver then devoted the remainder of the segment by speaking directly to Trump, restating how both of these outcomes would make Trump miserable. Oliver proposed a third option for Trump, which would be to drop out and demonstrate how his whole campaign was "a satire designed to expose the flaws in the system".[16] Oliver then pointed out how Trump had exposed four particular flaws: campaign financing in American politics, sensationalism in the media, how prominent Republicans have stood by his controversial stances at the risk of their own political careers, and how voters have embraced him for said stances regardless of their opinion of his divisive remarks and policy proposals pertaining to immigrants and Muslims.[16]

Oliver then said that were Trump to drop out, he would be a legend and there would be a federal holiday in Trump's honor named "Guy Who Decided Not to Be President's Day". To demonstrate how this would work out, Oliver cited the 1996 Dan Gutman children's book The Kid Who Ran for President.[16] With the assistance of Will Arnett, Oliver demonstrated that many aspects of Trump's personality and campaign resemble those of the book's title character, Judson Moon. In particular, Oliver suggested that Trump plagiarize the resignation speech given by Moon after he is haphazardly elected President of the United States in dismay that voters took his joke candidacy seriously, which Oliver would argue is a "perfect Trumpian address" and "kind of a thing for [Trump's] campaign". Oliver then invited Trump to read that speech on his show.[16]

Episode 25: "Trump's Lewd Remarks"

The election recap segment of the October 9 episode touches upon an outtake from a September 2005 Access Hollywood segment released by The Washington Post two days earlier, in which Trump inferred to then-host Billy Bush that his celebrity status gave Trump parlance to make inappropriate sexual advances with women (including grabbing their genitalia without permission). Recalling a comment he made in a segment from the previous week's episode about Trump's broadcast interview and social media attacks on Alicia Machado—whose claims of public fat-shaming by Trump after a weight gain that followed her 1996 crowning as Miss Universe was cited by Hillary Clinton as a key example of his negative views on women in the September 26 presidential debate—that if one were to look "above the clouds, [they would see] rock bottom," Oliver states that Trump's remarks in the Access tape had sunk the presidential campaign to the point of "breaking through the Earth's crust, where drowning in boiling magma will come a sweet, sweet relief".[17][18][19] He also briefly blasts Bush for going along with Trump's remarks, as well as former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's diversionary hypothesis in a CNN phone interview that Clinton may have expressed statements identical to those Trump made in the tape in her speeches to Wall Street banking institutions (excerpts of which were leaked in a broader stream of emails purported to have been hacked from the email accounts of Clinton's campaign staff that WikiLeaks began publishing on October 7, when the tape was released).[17][18][19]

Oliver then excoriates members of the Republican Party who continued to support Trump as the party's presidential nominee despite his prior controversial statements and various remarks that offended racial and religious minorities during the course of the campaign to avoid jeopardizing their chances of re-election by alienating Trump's supporters, only for the remarks to force them to rescind endorsements or distance themselves from Trump because of the risk to their re-election by more moderate Republicans and other voters offended by the footage, saying that their outrage would only be justified if "[they] were cryogenically frozen until Friday afternoon, and that Access Hollywood tape was the first thing [they] saw upon being re-animated"; Oliver also questions the move of several male Republican

final boss in a computer game that she must defeat to complete the goal of becoming the first female U.S. president.[17][18][19][20]

Episode 30: "President-Elect Trump"

Headshot of presidential candidate Donald Trump
John Oliver ended Season 3 with a reaction to the election of Donald Trump (pictured) as U.S. president.

The November 13, 2016, finale for the third season served as a recap for the election results. During the episode, Oliver expressed disgust that the United States elected Donald Trump (who became President-elect by Electoral College vote, but lost to Hillary Clinton by just under 2.9 million votes in the popular vote tally, a situation Trump mentioned—in some cases erroneously claiming to have won the popular vote as well—several times prior to and after his presidential inauguration), and demonstrates how Trump will, on January 20, 2017, be entrusted with the various powers of the presidency.[21]

Oliver demonstrated his disgust over the following issues: Trump's access to

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, despite campaigning against it during the election.[21]

Oliver then told the audience that the

media coverage during the election. Furthermore, Oliver argued that another reason for Trump's victory would be fake news on social media, and how more people obtained their news from Facebook. Oliver also demonstrated that even Trump himself was not immune to accepting fake news as legitimate news sources, something that Oliver argued earned him (Trump) the disdain of even fellow Republicans such as Ted Cruz. However, Oliver then demonstrated a clip of Cruz at a Republican campaign, rallying support for Trump.[21]

Oliver then resumed his overview of the powers and privileges that Trump will be given as president, such as having his portrait in airports and comforting the families of casualties of war. Oliver then joked that Trump would look up the salary of the President and then resign out of disappointment, but that would leave then-

the deaths of various celebrities during the year were factors that contributed to this dislike. Oliver compiled a montage of people on the street as well as celebrities such as Amy Schumer, Larry Wilmore, and "Weird Al" Yankovic lamenting these negative events. Oliver concludes the episode (and the season) by blowing up a sign of 2016 to the tune of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".[21]

Season 4 (2017)

Episode 1: "Trump vs. Truth"

In the core portion of the fourth-season premiere on February 12, 2017, Oliver discussed Trump's propensity to base his statements on tenuous or questionable media sources.

PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter ratings for Trump and for former President Obama. While the proportion of Obama's statements that were at least mostly false stood at 26%, the same proportion of Trump's statements that were mostly or fully false was 69%, more than twice as high as Obama's, at the time of the video's airing.[22][23][27] Oliver claimed that Trump had been exaggerating long before his presidential candidacy, saying that Trump couldn't even tell the truth about how tall his buildings were, since the highest floor of the 58-story Trump Tower was numbered "68".[22]

Oliver stated, "Trump's relationship with the truth is going to be of profound importance going forward."[22][28] He noted that key advisers such as Peter Thiel have defended Trump's statements on topics like a proposed travel ban by saying that "he didn't really mean it," but then said that the travel ban actually happened and that Trump himself had said that he was serious about the ban. Oliver also cited the impending construction of Trump's Mexican border wall, which he described as "might be 30 feet high and labeled 156 stories."[22] A big part of Trump's high rate of exaggerations or falsehoods, Oliver said, was because Trump liked to watch cable news.[23] Oliver further explained that Trump stumbled on responses to simple governmental common knowledge such as the nuclear triad, and that his posts on Twitter quoted, sometimes word-for-word, cable news sources that had aired fifteen minutes prior. He showed a clip of Trump aboard Air Force One, being interviewed by members of press while a commercial for carpets blares in the background. Oliver responds to that clip by summoning a video of a cowboy advertising the use of catheters.[22][29] He goes on to state that Trump has repeatedly cited right-wing websites like Breitbart and InfoWars, sometimes verbatim, and then listed some headlines of questionable veracity that these two websites have published.[23]

Oliver then listed some of the effects of Trump's statements.

global warming, and Trump's youngest daughter's name.[33]

Episode 13: "Stupid Watergate"

A recurring segment called "Stupid Watergate" is concerned with the appearance of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and resulting coverups. It is called "Stupid Watergate" because, according to Oliver, it is "a scandal with all the potential ramifications of Watergate, but where everyone involved is stupid and bad at everything".[34]

The segment was most prominently featured in the May 21, 2017 episode, also titled "Stupid Watergate", which recapped a week of negative news regarding President Trump, including the controversies over Trump

leaking classified information to Russia during an Oval Office visit as well as the much debated dismissal of FBI Director James Comey. The title's direct reference to the Watergate scandal piggybacks off comments made by politicians such as Arizona Senator John McCain, who had asserted that the scandals were "reaching the point where it's of Watergate size and scale". Other statements by the President received additional scrutiny from Oliver as well.[34]

The episode particularly highlighted Trump's complaint during the Presidential commencement address for the Coast Guard Academy that "[n]o politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly."[34][35] Oliver remarked:

Garfield was shot, then to find the bullet, Alexander Graham Bell devised a kind of metal detector, which didn't work, so doctors tried to fish around in his guts for the bullet with unwashed fingers, which just made his infection worse, so he died in horrible pain. But yeah, Alec Baldwin sometimes does a mean impression of you on TV. So yeah, it's basically the same, isn't it?[34][35]

Episode 30: "The Trump Presidency"

The show's fourth season concluded on November 12, 2017, just over a year after Trump won the election. Oliver says that Trump's presidency is tiring, saying that "every room in America should have a sign on the wall that counts the number of minutes that it's been since someone brought up his fucking name." Oliver compares Trump's presidency to several of Trump's handshakes in that "it pulls you in whether you like it or not". The comedian lists several awkward moments, such as the United States Department of State's advertisement of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort; Trump's 25-second handshake with French president Emmanuel Macron; and an incident where Trump shoved Montenegro's prime minister, Duško Marković, out of the way at a NATO conference. Oliver shows a clip where Trump talks about a "clean coal" mine that was opening in Pennsylvania, then makes fun of the statement, saying that Trump might know what he was talking about, but he might also have been talking about the act of sanitizing coal.[36]

Oliver then takes a look at the norms that Trump's presidency has broken, including the refusal to continue the practice that all presidents release their

tax returns; the failure to put The Trump Organization into a blind trust to prevent conflict of interest; and the nepotism-based act of placing his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner into positions at the White House.[36] Oliver also says that Trump's speaking style is incoherent. To prove this Oliver compares one of Trump's speeches on the Iran nuclear deal framework to a speech written by an iPhone's autocorrect function, concluding that the iPhone text was more understandable.[37][36]

Oliver then describes three of Trump's "assaults" on civic leadership norms. The first "assault", according to the comedian, is the

trolling, which Trump uses to enrage opponents even if an action does not benefit him directly.[37] Oliver caricatures a disaffected blue-collar factory worker who voted for Trump and supported the president's action to enlarge the United States' nuclear arsenal: "Well, the plant closed down and I lost my health care, but somewhere a Washington Post reporter is scared of dying so things are looking up. MAGA!"[36]

The comedian then gives an example where "Trump was explicitly given the opportunity to set the record straight for the fake news media but he flat-out refused." When

allegations surrounding former Democratic U.S. President Bill Clinton.[36]

Oliver concludes by noting Democrats' recent electoral and legislative victories, such as the election of Democratic candidate Ralph Northam in the 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election, and the delays in Republican efforts to end the Affordable Care Act. He then announces that he would be airing "Catheter Cowboy" ads on Fox News-affiliated channels in the Washington, D.C. area, featuring Thomas Kopache as a cowboy who seemingly talks about pain before correcting Trump's misconceptions.[36]

Season 5 (2018)

Episode 1: "Trump vs. The World"

As the first episode of season 5, premiering on 18 February 2018, "Trump vs. The World" deals with the foreign policy followed by the Trump Administration towards nations that are traditionally seen as allies of the United States, including Germany. The segment describes the effects that the strategies of "soft power" and "America First" have had on the international community and how America has since come to be viewed around the world.[40]

Season 6 (2019)

Episode 27: "Trump & Syria"

On the 27 October 2019 episode near the end of season 6, Oliver in "Trump & Syria" covered the aftermath of the Trump administration's

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the region. Oliver argued Trump's view of foreign policy was very "short-term" and "transactional", noting Trump falsely claimed Saudi Arabia paid for a larger deployment of U.S. troops there at the same time.[41]

References

  1. ^ Lyons, Joseph D. (October 17, 2016). "7 Painfully Accurate Ways John Oliver Has Described This Election". Bustle. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  2. ^
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  3. ^ a b c John Oliver (February 28, 2016). Donald Trump. HBO. Retrieved August 16, 2016 – via YouTube.
  4. OCLC 1311479. Retrieved March 28, 2016.. The claim is taken from Gwenda Blair, The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire
    (2000), p. 26, where it is implied that the surname originates with one Hanns Drumpf recorded in Kallstadt in 1608.
  5. OCLC 1645522
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  6. ^ a b c d John Oliver (March 20, 2016). Border Wall. HBO. Retrieved March 27, 2016 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ a b Lee, Chris (March 21, 2016). "John Oliver Demolishes Donald Trump's Wall In 18 Minutes". Fortune. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  8. ^ a b Garofalo, Alex (March 21, 2016). "Donald Trump Border Wall Slammed By John Oliver On 'Last Week Tonight'". International Business Times. IBT Media. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  9. ^ a b "John Oliver takes Donald Trump's border wall plan seriously, unfortunately for Trump". The Week. The Week Publications. March 21, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  10. ^ Kendall, Brent (June 3, 2016). "Trump Says Judge's Mexican Heritage Presents 'Absolute Conflict'". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  11. ^ a b John Oliver (June 6, 2016). Trump University. HBO. Retrieved August 16, 2016 – via YouTube.
  12. ^ Guerrasio, Jason (June 6, 2016). "John Oliver investigates the suspect business tactics at Trump University". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
  13. ^ a b c Oliver, John (August 14, 2016). (Last Week Tonight) John Oliver — Trump new claim on Obama and Clinton (August 14th, 2016). HBO. Retrieved August 16, 2016 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ a b Reed, Ryan (August 15, 2016). "Watch John Oliver Call Donald Trump's Apology 'Bulls--t'". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media, LLC. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  15. ^ Locker, Melissa (August 15, 2016). "Sarcasm Expert John Oliver Calls Out Donald Trump's Sarcasm". Time. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Oliver, John (August 22, 2016). John Oliver Asks Donald Trump to Drop Out of Presidential Race 22.08.16. HBO. Retrieved September 14, 2016 – via YouTube.
  17. ^ a b c Lincoln, Ross A. (October 10, 2016). "John Oliver Tears Into Donald Trump & Billy Bush Over Hot Mic Controversy". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  18. ^ a b c Tom Huddleston, Jr. (October 10, 2016). "John Oliver Rips into Donald Trump over Lewd Tape". Fortune. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  19. ^ a b c Stern, Marlow (October 10, 2016). "ON BLAST: John Oliver Tears Apart GOP for Enabling 'Pussy-Grabbing' Trump". The Daily Beast. IAC. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  20. ^ Nigel M Smith (October 10, 2016). "'This is on you': John Oliver ridicules Republicans over Trump groping tape". The Guardian. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  21. ^ a b c d John Oliver (November 13, 2016). President-Elect Trump. HBO. Retrieved January 26, 2017 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k John Oliver (February 12, 2017). Trump vs. Truth. HBO. Retrieved February 14, 2017 – via YouTube.
  23. ^ a b c d "Watch John Oliver Criticize Donald Trump's Post-Fact Politics". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  24. ^ "Trump brings up vote fraud again, this time in meeting with senators". Politico. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  25. ^ "Was it impossible for Syrian Christians to enter US? No". politifact. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  26. ^ Taylor, Jessica (21 January 2017). "Trump Administration Goes To War With The Media Over Inauguration Crowd Size". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
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  28. ^ "John Oliver Made Commercials to Educate Trump About His Job". Time. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  29. ISSN 0190-8286
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  30. ^ Schultz, Marisa; Golding, Bruce (2016-11-27). "Trump says he lost popular vote because 'millions voted illegally'". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
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  33. ^ Garber, Megan. "John Oliver Is Buying Ads on Cable News to Talk to President Trump". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  34. ^ a b c d John Oliver (2017-05-21). Stupid Watergate. HBO. Retrieved 2017-11-27 – via YouTube.
  35. ^ a b Reed, Ryan (May 22, 2017). "See John Oliver Explain Why Trump's Russia Scandal Is 'Stupid Watergate'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
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  37. ^ a b c d "John Oliver tackles the Trump presidency in season finale of "Last Week Tonight"". Salon. 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  38. ^ Dickerson, John (May 1, 2017). "President Trump's interview in the Oval Office: Full Transcript". CBS News. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  39. ^ Cooper debunks congressman's conspiracy theory, CNN Video, 2017-10-26, retrieved 2017-11-28
  40. ^ "Trump vs. The World: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)". YouTube. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  41. ^ "Trump & Syria: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)". YouTube. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
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