Donald Trump and his allies have really been leaning into the question of “are things better now than they were four years ago” in campaigning lately, but this week, Trump changed his timeline a bit. As a result, he ended up unintentionally praising President Biden, which Seth Meyers got a kick out of on Wednesday night.
During his “A Closer Look” segment, the NBC host took particular issue with the fact that Trump and his supporters are trying to “jedi mind trick” people into forgetting the fact that, four years ago, the country was actually deep into a deadly pandemic (one that Trump actively tried to undermine the response to).
But at a Tuesday rally Tuesday, Trump actually tried to take credit for the state of things three years ago — when Biden was already in the White House.
“Three years ago, we were a great nation,” Trump said. “And we will soon be a great nation again.”
As the clip ended, Meyers could only stare down the camera.
“Yeah, if only we could have whoever was president three years ago,” he joked, before impersonating Trump to take the joke one further.
“‘Three years ago, we were all — we were all so happy three years ago,’” the host mimicked. “I can’t remember the details of why, but it felt as though a darkness had been lifted.’”
Meyers then filled in the blanks and pointed out the obvious, reminding Trump that three years ago was April 2021, and he had long since been evicted from the White House.
“Even Trump knows he can’t say we were better off four years ago, so he tries to change it to three years ago, but the numbers don’t work,” Meyers said. “He’s like a kid in remedial math who gets the answer wrong just so he can spell funny words on his calculator.”
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.