John Oliver calls out Donald Trump for using bodyslam Tweet to distract people from the travel ban
Commentators were forced to discuss Gifs rather than travel bans
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Before starting the most recent season of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver said there would be some restrain from talking about President Donald Trump week in, week out.
While talking about a remarkably broad number of topics, Trump’s dominance over headlines has, of course, ended up featuring most weeks on the HBO show.
Thanks to a string of offending Tweets, Oliver took aim at the former Celebrity Apprentice host once more, starting with the “absolutely indefensible” messages about MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski.
“He’s pretty open about how grossly shitty he can be, so we can’t be shocked when he suddenly is,” Oliver commented after one member of the administration attempted to defend the Tweet.
Following the Tweets, the announcement of the previously banned “travel ban” being partially allowed by the United States’ supreme court dominated the news.
“At first the ban was banned, but now the court has partially banned the ban ban, instituting a partial ban pending the possibility of a future partial ban ban,” quipped Oliver.
One result from the ruling, which was heavily protested around the United States, was that citizens with ‘a credible claim of a bonafide relationship with a person or entity’ within the country could stay.
Trump’s administration defined the ‘bonafide’ as including parents, spouses, children, adult son or daughters, sons and daughter-in-laws, and siblings, but not grandparents, aunts or uncles, nieces or nephews, cousins, or brothers or sister-in-laws.
“Grandparents don’t count as close family? Good luck telling them that,” said Oliver. After discussing how refugees promised a place in the United States, the host added: “This ban is cruel, it’s unnecessary, and it undermines our standing in the world.
“So you would think the President would at least be justifying its existence. Instead, he keeps derailing the conversation with his barrage of bullshit.”
Unfortunately, though, Trump managed to divert everyone’s attention away from the "travel ban" once more using his Twitter account. As you may know, the actual President of the United States, Leader of the Free World, posted the already-infamous Gif of himself body slamming someone with the CNN logo over their face.
Rather than play the Gif straight, though, Oliver played footage of one commentator on ABC reacting to the moving image.
“You know, at this point I have no choice but to admit that Trump was right: There is at least one grandparent who poses a grave and immediate threat to America,” Oliver said. “Unfortunately, it’s the grandparent currently in f**king charge of it.” Watch below.
Last month, Oliver called on Trump to “stop lying to coal miners” after extracting an interview from a 1990 Playboy magazine in which the President said “most people don’t have the imagination to leave their mine”.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments