Late-night hosts talked Donald Trump advertising and marketing Elon Musk’s Tesla automobiles with taxpayer cash and the way Trump’s tariffs are sinking the US economic system.
Seth Meyers
The one silver lining of the financial downturn since Trump took workplace, in keeping with Seth Meyers, is that Tesla shares are plummeting too. Elon Musk’s automotive firm is now price half of what it was at its mid-December peak.
On Tuesday, Trump intervened to pump up Tesla’s inventory value by doing a promo for the corporate with taxpayer cash. He remodeled the south garden of the White Home right into a Tesla automotive lot, trying to “purchase” a brand new automotive with Musk himself. Requested by reporters if he would pay with a bank card, Trump stated he was “old style” and most well-liked checks.
“So enjoyable to see the crypto president simply totally admit he’s nonetheless a examine man,” the Late Evening host laughed.
Trump additionally climbed right into a Tesla with Musk and exclaimed: “That’s lovely! It is a completely different pedal … every part is laptop!”
“You understand, I give the person a tough time, however then he says one thing that basically places one thing into perspective,” Meyers joked. “As a result of whenever you actually give it some thought, every part’s computer systems.”
Musk then needed to clarify to Trump that driving a automotive is like “driving a golf cart … it’s like a golf cart that goes actually quick.”
“A automotive is a golf cart that goes actually quick. I imply, is that how they’ve to clarify issues to Trump within the Scenario Room?” Meyers questioned.
What’s Trump getting out of the photo-op? Musk already spent practically $300m on the 2024 election and has reportedly promised to funnel one other $100m immediately into political entities managed by Trump. “And it says every part about Trump that his response to that’s: ‘Thanks for that, in trade, I’ll purchase one Tesla,’” stated Meyers.
“That is how oligarchy works,” he added. “For those who’re favored by the regime, you get an infomercial paid for by taxpayers.
“However you say one thing the regime doesn’t like, you get disappeared in the course of the evening with none due course of and even an accusation of against the law,” he added, pointing to the story of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate scholar and chief of pro-Palestinian protests who was arrested by immigration brokers, claiming his scholar visa was revoked, regardless that he’s a authorized everlasting resident.
Stephen Colbert
On the Late Present, Stephen Colbert lamented the economic system’s “toboggan experience to skid row” due to Trump’s tariffs. “However right this moment, Trump applied a plan to quell worry of tariffs with extra tariffs. Keep in mind, you’ve bought to battle fireplace with setting our cash on fireplace,” he joked.
Trump’s sweeping tariffs on overseas metal and aluminum went into impact on Wednesday, “After all, these tariffs, like every tariffs, are a tax that we pay on the stuff that we purchase,” Colbert defined, noting that the worth of a brand new automotive may enhance as a lot as $12,000. “So any longer, youngsters are going to need to attempt to get to 3rd base within the backseat of a motorcycle.”
To quell outrage – even the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Road Journal referred to as the tariffs “the dumbest in historical past” – Trump despatched his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, to make the rounds on the information. Requested by a CBS journalist if he thought the tariffs would nonetheless be price it in the event that they led to a recession, Lutnick answered: “These insurance policies are crucial factor America has ever had.”
“Sure, these tariffs are THE most necessary factor America has ever had,” Colbert deadpanned. “Extra necessary than the Declaration of Independence, extra necessary than touchdown on the moon, extra necessary than making the taco shell out of the Dorito.”
He added: “You understand somebody is mendacity once they use that large of a superlative about something.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel additionally checked in on a dire state of affairs. “The costs Trump stated he would decrease on day one are nonetheless excessive, our eggs have the flu and half the Division of Schooling is about to get laid off,” he stated.
These Division of Schooling workers at the moment are on the whims of Linda McMahon, schooling secretary and spouse of the WWE founder, Vince McMahon. “May you think about getting fired by the spouse of the disgraced wrestling meathead? Don’t let the folding chair hit you on the way in which out,” Kimmel stated.
“Right here’s a math downside: if the Division of Schooling has 4,000 workers, and the president cuts 50% of the workforce, what number of edibles do I must get via the following 4 years?”
As for Trump, “he’s Thanos-ed the Division of Schooling,” Kimmel concluded. “Goodbye half the Division of Schooling. Goodbye half the Nationwide Park Service. Goodbye half of our allies, goodbye half of your 401(okay). All of them disappeared, and so they’re not coming again.”
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