Twice-impeached former president Donald Trump apparently thinks that the U.S. government should be a caste system, rather than a democracy — but that doesn’t mean he can explain how a caste system works. In fact, he tried on Wednesday night and got a thorough roasting for it on Wednesday from Seth Meyers.
On Tuesday night, the second portion of Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity aired on Fox News, marking the first time Trump has appeared on the network in several months amid several investigations into him.
During their conversation, Hannity asked Trump if presidential candidates should have to take cognitive tests to prove they’re fit for the job, which led the twice-impeached former president to say yes — but also that the system should be thrown out entirely.
“You know, they do it in China, but it’s done a different way,” Trump said. “They have a caste system. And the smartest person gets to the top.”
“First of all, that’s definitely not how a caste system works,” Meyers mocked on Wednesday’s installment of A Closer Look on “Late Night.” “Even when he’s saying he should get the job because he’s smarter, he’s dumb as s—.”
Indeed, that is not how a caste system works. To save you a search — either back to your school days or on the internet — a caste system isn’t exactly something people can climb through, as Trump implied in his statement. Trump was only right in that a caste system is usually depicted as a pyramid, indicating levels of people.
Each level has certain rights, but those rights decrease as you go down the hierarchy, ending with the bottom level which has no rights at all. Caste systems encourage endogamy, which means you always marry within your class to maintain society’s hierarchy long-term. In short, it’s privilege largely determined by birth.
The “Late Night” host then made fun of Trump’s visual aid while he attempted to explain the system, in which he tried to depict the pyramid levels with his hands.
“No one who’s actually smart has to explain a caste system by doing this with their hands,” Meyers joked. “He looks like he’s playing one of those rhyming games for children.”
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.
