Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue took on an interstellar quality on “The Late Show,” as he called Trump’s “Space Force” the boldest idea Trump got “from a Buzz Lightyear Happy Meal Toy.”
“Hello, citizens of Earth,” Colbert said to kick off the monologue. “And if this is a rerun from two years from now, hello, all our fighting boys in the Asteroid Belt. Go give the Astro-Kaiser hell! Because there’s big news tonight about Space Force!
“Longtime viewers of the Trump administration will remember that Space Force is the president’s boldest idea that he got from a Buzz Lightyear Happy Meal toy,” he continued.
Colbert was referring to the news that Vice President Mike Pence announced the Department of Defense would take steps to address the way it approaches space, and called for the creation of a Space Force branch of the military by 2020.
Trump first mentioned the idea of a Space Force in May, when he floated the creation of a new branch of the military to match the Air Force, Army and Navy, dedicated to fighting wars in space. Colbert played a clip of the speech in which Trump discussed the creation of the Space Force, which ended with Trump declaring, “Space Force, think of that!”
“Yes, think of that! But not too hard, because it’s stupid,” Colbert said after the clip finished. “We already have NASA! We don’t need Space Force. Please wait until NASA finds life until you try to kill it.”
Colbert also picked on Pence, who timed his speech about Space Force with a DOD report that dealt with increased space threats from China and Russia. He referenced reports that Pence won’t dine alone with women who are not his wife, something the vice president has been mocked and criticized for, since many see the rule as holding back women from working with Pence at the same level as men.
Today Space Force got a boost from Mike Pence,” Colbert joked. “No surprise, Pence is a huge fan of space — it is the farthest you can get from being alone with a human woman.”