If this whole president thing doesn’t work out for Donald Trump, perhaps he has a promising future as a pop star.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host Jimmy Kimmel offered his thoughts about Trump’s reaction to criticism over his get-together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, calling Trump the “Taylor Swift of treason.”
On Wednesday’s episode, Kimmel first reflected on Trump’s still-strong approval numbers among GOP voters, despite widespread criticism of his press conference with Putin, during which Trump appeared to side with Putin over whether Russia had interfered with the 2016 election, despite the assertions of U.S. intelligence officials. (The next day, Trump maintained that he meant to say the opposite of what he said during the conference.)
“It’s all very crazy. And yet — with all of this Moscow madness happening — according to a new poll from Reuters, 71 percent of Republican voters have a favorable view of how Trump has been dealing with Russia,” Kimmel marveled.
“Which — is nuts — but I was thinking about this today and I think there’s a simple explanation for it,” Kimmel continued. “They might not like what he’s doing, they might not like him but they love how pissed off it makes Democrats and so they want it to keep happening.”
Kimmel then moved on to Trump himself.
“Trump kept his base going — by calling out his ‘haters’ today on Twitter,” Kimmel said. “He’s the Taylor Swift of treason. He really is.”
The late-night host added, “He wrote today, ‘Some people hate the fact that I got along well with the president of Russia. They would rather go to war than see this. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome!’”
Kimmel continued, “Now, I’ve never heard of Trump Derangement Syndrome — I’m not a doctor — but if it is a syndrome named after Donald Trump, I assume it’s sexually transmitted.”