In his first show back on Late Night after a two-week break, Seth Meyers called Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin “one of the most surreal performances by a president in modern American history.”
“Even before he got to Finland, Trump’s foreign trip was one of the more disastrous ones in recent memory,” Meyers said, highlighting, among other things, his awkward interactions with the queen. But, he added, “If you thought all of that was bad, it was nothing compared to Trump’s performance today with Putin.”
In Meyers’ estimation, Trump was “desperate to get in Putin’s good graces by repeatedly offering nothing but gushing praise” for Russia during Monday’s joint press conference. “However low your expectations were, Trump managed to go much lower,” he said, because just three days after Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for meddling in the U.S. election, Trump “tied himself in knots to take Putin’s side.”
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After playing a montage of the president fawning over Putin, Meyers asked, “Can someone get Trump a glass of water because he thirsty?” He added, “It’s only a matter of weeks before he Single White Females Putin.”
Recapping the press conference, Meyers said, “Trump blamed the U.S. for Russian aggressive, attacked the FBI and special counsel’s investigation, took Putin’s side on election meddling, attacked Democrats and Hillary Clinton with Putin standing next to him, and said Putin was strong and powerful.”
“Can you imagine what their private meeting was like?” he asked. “I’m worried he let Putin annex one of the 50 states.” Meyers imagined Trump showing Putin the electoral map and saying, “Pick one of the blue ones.”
