Six months ago, John Oliver thought he didn’t have to care about Donald Trump, but now, with the GOP presidential candidate taking 35 percent of primary votes so far, Oliver feels he has to.
“I didn’t care, I didn’t think I’d have to care, but then it turned out, I did,” Oliver told Stephen Colbert, when Colbert added that no one thought “they would have to care.”
“That’s right, none of thought we were going to be here, but we are,” Oliver said Monday on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS.
Colbert asked Oliver about his Trump segment that he did on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” on Feb. 29, when he spoke about Donald Trump and how he has spent years building his name into a personal brand with himself as a mascot, making the name Trump synonymous with success. But citing a biography of Trump’s family, Oliver pointed out that the Trump family name was originally Drumpf.
On that “Last Week Tonight” episode, Oliver also called Trump “America’s back mole” and showed off a hat that bore the slogan, “Make Donald Drumpf again.” “It may have seemed harmless a year ago but now that it has gotten frighteningly bigger, it is no longer wise to ignore it.” Oliver then went on to pick apart reasons people like Donald Trump, like believing him to be honest, and his business success.
Speaking with Colbert on Monday, Oliver said HBO had sold 35,000 of those hats, and Jay Z’s people even called the network asking for a hat — for free.