On Thursday morning, Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, tweeted something crazy. Now I know what you’re thinking: He does that every day. Well, the latest example of his 140-character rant-ritual was petty and cruel, even for him:
Trump was likely firing back at that morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, in which co-host Mika Brzezinski criticized him for displaying fake Time magazine covers featuring him at several of his golf resorts. After Trump’s tweets, there was no apology from the White House or the president, with spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders once again left defending the indefensible, calling her boss a “fighter.”
Stephen Colbert had a different take on Thursday night’s Late Show.
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“I want to say something right now that I did not think was possible anymore: I am shocked by something Donald Trump said,” Colbert announced during his monologue. “I thought by now, after five months of this, that my soul had calcified into a crouton. Not true.”
Tonight: Stephen thought he could no longer be shocked by Trump's behavior... Think again, host. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/Xtx8g1hxYb
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) June 30, 2017
The comedian then repeated Trump’s childish and gross tweets, to audible groans and boos from his audience.
“Where to begin? It’s a buffet of shit,” exclaimed Colbert. “First of all, someone bleeding badly at your door and you say no? It sounds like your health-care plan. And I mean, turning them away from your hotel in the middle of winter is literally the story of Christmas—only there wasn’t a wise man in sight. This is shocking and vicious. So on-brand.”
The Late Show host also criticized first lady Melania Trump’s defense of her husband, a man she refused to live with for the first several months of his presidency.
“Of course, the first lady naturally defended her husband—via a spokesperson. ‘As the first lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder.’ Yes, as the first lady says, ‘When they go low, we go 10 times lower.’”
He added: “So, the focus on cyberbullying is going well so far. We just didn’t know she was going to be a superfan of it.”
“And the reviews are in. ‘Vulgar.’ ‘Crude.’ ‘A new low.’ No, it’s the same low,” the comic continued.
Colbert is right. Trump has an awful history of attempting to degrade and dehumanize women by mocking their bodies. During a 2011 deposition, he was accused of calling a woman lawyer “disgusting” for asking to take a break to pump breast milk. When Hillary Clinton took a bathroom break during a Democratic primary debate, Trump said it was “too disgusting” to discuss. After former Fox News host Megyn Kelly asked Trump a debate question about his history of misogyny, Trump branded her a “bimbo” on Twitter and made a terrible period joke at her expense, saying it felt like she had “blood coming out of her wherever.” He even criticized a pregnant Kim Kardashian, calling her “a bit large,” and once screamed at then-wife Ivana, “Who would touch those plastic breasts?” during a heated argument, according to Vanity Fair.
The only difference is that Trump now has a different job title.
On-brand indeed.
