Opening Last Week Tonight with Trump’s galling lack of action regarding the Virginia white supremacist violence, John Oliver focused his show on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and how out of his depth POTUS is in handling the tense situation.
Oliver was incredulous that the social media application Twitter has brought the entire world to a nuclear standoff.
In his summary, Oliver quipped: “North Korea, America’s number one excuse for putting off chores this week.”
Showing a CNN Kate Bolduan clip that ominously said, “North Korea [is] now accusing the president of the United States of pushing the world to quote ‘the brink of nuclear war.’ ”
Oliver looked stunned. He said: “Wow when Twitter was invented I bet even they didn’t imagine that it would one day lead us to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.”
As reckless as the Korean leader appears, Oliver argued he was acting in “self-preservation” based on recent U.S. history.
He said: “He [Kim Jong-un] has seen leaders like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi scale back their nuclear programs only to be overthrown either by the U.S. or their own people and die gruesome deaths. And it’s true that dictators generally don’t end their careers like disgraced American politicians with a stint on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ although that would have been an incredible season.”
The war of words and volley of threats between a master propagandist and a child-like reactor is worrisome to all, as Oliver pointed out.
He said: “This is clearly a very serious situation requiring a deft hand, and sadly that’s not what it got.”
Oliver showed the clip of Trump’s initial ‘fire and fury‘ threat.
He said: “Fire and fury? The only way that that is not terrifying is if you report it the way that one newspaper actually did in Maine saying: ‘Trump warns of fire and furry,’ in which case Trump was threatening to send this to North Korea which is a very different kind of threat.”
Noting that the U.S. has heard the same saber rattling from North Korean before, he said: “Now in response, North Korea announced plans to fire missiles that would land just off the coast of the U.S. territory of Guam, which is frightening – although not unprecedented.
“They [North Korea] have made similar threats before. But what is different this time, obviously, is that we now have a president who has the general temperament of a wet cat.”
Oliver took Trump to task for his doubling down on his ‘fire and fury’ remarks and in closing the segment he introduced “Weird Al” Yankovic to sing a song asking the “dear leader” and President Trump to reel the war rhetoric back.
Last Week Tonight airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.