Thanks to the unfortunate particulars of the way time works, Donald Trump’s meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un happened after all the late-night hosts taped their shows on Monday night. And so we got lots of small mentions that the summit was happening and lots of reflections on just how badly Trump botched the weekend’s G7 summit with America’s allies.
Meyers, in particular, was fascinated by the way Trump is able to get along pretty well with America’s enemies while being unable to make it through something like the G7 without angering the other countries. The moment that really tied that horrifying dynamic together came when Trump said over and over again that Russia should be allowed back into the summit.
“Over the weekend Trump was asked about his proposal to let Russia rejoin the G8, and Trump tried to gloss over the reason Russia was kicked out. Again, they were kicked out for invading a country,” Meyers said, before “Late Night” played the Trump clip in question.
“Some people like the idea of bringing Russia back in. This used to be the G8, not the G7. And something happened a while ago where Russia is no longer in,” Trump said in the video, which prompted laughter from Meyers’ studio audience.
“Something happened? They invaded another country. This is like that ‘Seinfeld’ episode. He yada, yada, yada’d the invasion of Crimea,” Meyers joked. “Trump is much more comfortable with authoritarian leaders because unlike our democratic elected allies, authoritarians can easily win Trump over by lining his pockets.
“For example, days before Trump lashed out at Canada, he promised out of nowhere to help China save a state-owned cell phone company that had been sanctioned by Congress. Trump’s move came after the Chinese government had agreed to grant $500 million in loans to an Indonesian resort project that would directly enrich Trump, and on top of that, China has also approved 13 new Ivanka Trump trademarks in three months, allowing her brand to market a lifetime’s worth of products in China from baby blankets to coffins. Now it might seem weird that Ivanka Trump sells coffins, but to be fair like half the people in the Trump administration sleep in them.”
That was, of course, a joke about Trump’s people looking weirdly like old depictions of vampires.
“Trump — Trump cozies up to authoritarian leaders because he admires them, and because they can bribe him,” Meyers continued. “In fact, in the run-up to his summit meeting with Kim, Trump was apparently so comfortable he told reporters he didn’t really need to prepare.”
“Late Night” then played the clip from over the weekend in which Trump said, “I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude. It’s about willingness to get things done. But I think I’ve been preparing for this summit for a long time.”
“Sure, sure, but there’s also a chance his lack of preparation could lead to this,” Meyers said, as he slipped into a frantic Trump impression. “What? You’re Kim, but that’s a girl’s name. Oh man. I have to talk to you. Is that your normal haircut? You’re very fat.”
To punctuate that whole thing, “Late Night” played a clip of a nuclear bomb exploding.
You can watch all of the “A Closer Look” segment from Monday night’s episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in the video embedded at the top of this post.