Stephen Colbert tries to make sense of Trump’s medieval wall and supercars rant
By Matt Moore
Stephen Colbert did his best to break down President Trump’s national address as well as his comments on the so-called crisis at the border.
President Donald Trump’s national address about the “humanitarian and national security crisis” at the southern border went about as expected. There wasn’t too much from Trump that we haven’t heard before. But the speech and Trump’s comments the day after still had some points that Stephen Colbert wanted explained on The Late Show.
The timing of the speech couldn’t have been better for Colbert. It came just one day after The Late Show returned from its holiday hiatus. Colbert opened the first show by taking a look at the government shutdown and Trump’s ongoing push to fund his border wall.
Deciding to deliver a national address in primetime was a tricky situation for the president. On the one hand, he got networks to broadcast his speech directly to Americans. And on the other hand, the information coming directly from Trump’s mouth is open to fact-checking and rebuttals. That plays directly into what has helped Stephen Colbert to the top of late night.
Colbert does his best to crack jokes about the energy levels from both sides. President Trump as well as Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer seemed less than enthused to be making those remarks. In the end, both sides delivered what amounted to a waste of time that changed nothing. That is, if you don’t count Colbert’s monologue.
It was Trump’s unscripted remarks on the issues that really provided the best material. Yes, Trump tried to spin things in his speech to suggest that law enforcement agencies are the ones who came up with the wall idea and that democrats want steel slats. That sort of message was expected.
What wasn’t expected was Trump suggesting that medieval technology is just as good today as it was back then. Or the claim that illegal immigrants are using bigger, faster, and more powerful vehicles to get across the border. So it sounds like Trump’s plan to stop sophisticated, cutting-edge vehicles is to use medieval tactics.
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Hearing that makes it not so surprising to see Stephen Colbert have to snap himself back to reality. Nobody is more used to Trump’s exaggerations than Colbert but even the late night host has to take a second on a given night. So it seems like whether he is reading from a prompter or speaking his mind freely, President Trump will continue to provide plenty material for Colbert’s show.