Donald Trump may have declined Thursday afternoon to say just what could be worse than the “fire and fury” he promised if North Korea steps out of line, but Stephen Colbert thinks he knows the answer — putting Donald Trump in charge of a country.
Colbert weighed in on Trump’s latest comments about North Korea at the start of Thursday’s episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “I’d like to go on the record: I do not want the Earth to blow up. That’s where my house is, and I have a vacation there in a couple of weeks,” Colbert said.
“Things are getting tense between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. For the record, we didn’t start it,” Colbert continued. “North Korea has been testing these missiles for a long time now, and saying specifically they’re making them to attack the United States. Certainly a firm response is necessary, but maybe not ‘fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen.’”
Colbert was referring to Trump’s apparently improvised threat on Wednesday to visit “fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen” on the autocratic nation if they continue to threaten the United States, a comment that rattled Americans more than it reassured them.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump was asked how he feels about the negative reaction his threats got, especially from Americans, and he doubled down. In a clip shown on “The Late Show,” Trump said, “Frankly, the people that were questioning that statement as too tough… if anything maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough.”
“What is tougher than fire and fury?,” Colbert asked. “Love and rage? A papercut and a lemon? Rizzoli and Isles? Crate & Barrel? Key & Peele? What?”
As it happens, a member of the press covering Trump on his vacation asked the same question, and in the clip shown tonight on “The Late Show,” Trump responded with a rather unnerving “We’ll you’ll see. You’ll see.”
Trump then added that “Anyone even thinking about attacking anybody that we love or represent… they should be very nervous… Things will happen to them that they never imagined. They’ll be in trouble like few nations ever have been in trouble in this world.”
“Oh my god,” Colbert added. “I think he just threatened to be their president.”
Watch the clip below.
TONIGHT: Trump doubles down on his 'fire and fury' threat to North Korea, and Stephen's figured out what that means. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/fUlnaWFyTd
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) August 11, 2017