In the season finale of "Last Week Tonight," host John Oliver devoted the whole show to President Donald Trump and the ways in which he is violating the norms of American democracy. Oliver announced Sunday that he will be taking the rest of 2017 off, so he tried to leave his audience with a glimmer of hope.
“The Trump presidency is basically a marathon — painful, pointless, and the majority of you didn’t agree to run, but were signed up by your dumbest friend,” the Emmy award winning comedian said.
Oliver identified three strategies Trump uses to push his agenda: delegitimizing the media, whataboutism and trolling. He called these tactics an “old Soviet propaganda tool” which he employs to debase debate and create false moral equivalencies. Oliver accused Trump of staging an assault on "the very concept of truth."
“It’s so important to train ourselves to identify these techniques, because their natural endpoint is the erosion of our ability to decide what’s important, have an honest debate and hold one another accountable,” Oliver said.
Oliver read a transcript from a speech Trump gave overseas in Asia. It was mostly a vomit of words that did not actually contain a coherent message.
“It is staggering how incoherent he is,” Oliver said after reading a transcript. “That is a drunk driver crashing a pickup truck full of alphabet soup.”
Oliver later examined Trump's tweet directed at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in which he called him "short" and "fat" for no apparent reason.
Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2017
“This would be the stupidest possible reason for all of us to die,” Oliver said. “I’m serious: If the entire country simultaneously tripped while putting on its underwear and fell face-forward into the toilet, got stuck, and drowned, it would be considerably less stupid than if that tweet caused a nuclear apocalypse.”
Oliver then summed up the Trump administration best, saying, “Trump’s presidency is like one of his handshakes: It pulls you in whether you like it or not.”
The "Last Week Tonight" host revealed at the end of his show that he will place strategic ad buys on "Fox & Friends" to end the year that will deliver messages such as "Nazis are bad." So even though the late-night show might be done for the rest of 2017, it will still be bringing the truth to the masses.
Watch Oliver take on Trump below:
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