On Sunday morning, Americans’ Independence Day weekend was interrupted by yet another deranged tweet from the president of the United States.
The president, in all his wisdom, took it upon himself to escalate his ongoing war with CNN—you know, the network run by a longtime Trump pal that employs numerous Trump surrogates, including several ex-staffers, and played a considerable role in helping him get elected by airing his rallies start to finish—by tweeting out a video of him bodyslamming a wrestler with the CNN logo superimposed over the man’s face. The brief clip was an edited version of one of Trump’s numerous appearances on WWE, whose stunts he believes might be real, and came from a Reddit user with the handle “HanAssholeSolo” who has a history of posting tremendously racist material.
And so, during Sunday night’s edition of Last Week Tonight, comedian John Oliver first began by addressing “President Trump: The Bachelor in Paradise of American presidents,” and the “disgusting” and “absolutely indefensible” tweets Trump sent Thursday directed toward Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski.
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“He’s pretty open about how grossly shitty he can be, so we can’t be shocked when he suddenly is,” offered Oliver.
But that news, according to the HBO host, overshadowed developments concerning Trump’s Muslim ban. The original ban—which Trump has confessed on numerous occasions is indeed a ban—sought to halt all refugee admissions while temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries into the United States. It was met with widespread condemnation, including protests at airports across the country, and seen as a hollow display of Islamophobia, since it failed to include countries like Saudi Arabia (15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi), or really anyone behind any deadly terror attacks against the U.S. This past week, the Supreme Court reinstated parts of Trump’s travel ban before hearing arguments on the case in October.
According to the partially reinstated ban, it does not apply to anyone with “a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” and the Trump administration further defined this “bona fide relationship” as “to include parents, spouses, children, adult son or daughters, sons and daughter-in-laws, and siblings.” So grandparents, aunts or uncles, nieces or nephews, cousins, or brothers or sister-in-laws do not fall under the administration’s definition of a “bona fide relationship.”
“This ban is cruel, it’s unnecessary, and it undermines our standing in the world. So you would think the president would at least be justifying its existence. Instead, he keeps derailing the conversation with his barrage of bullshit,” said Oliver.
Yes, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week Sunday morning, host Martha Raddatz was all set to discuss the travel ban with Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert. “But they never got around to it, because they had to address yet another unhinged tweet,” said Oliver.
Raddatz played the CNN bodyslam video for Bossert, who looked absolutely stunned—before, as is anyone in the Trump administration’s wont, defending it.
“You know, at this point I have no choice but to admit that Trump was right: There is at least one grandparent who poses a grave and immediate threat to America,” said Oliver, referencing the travel ban stipulations. “Unfortunately, it’s the grandparent currently in fucking charge of it.”
