No late-night host rises to the occasion of a controversial Donald Trump soundbite quite like John Oliver, who on this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight tore into two of the former president’s most headline-making remarks.
He opened the episode by tearing into Trump’s “disastrous appearance” before the National Association of Black Journalists last week, in which the Republican presidential candidate called into question Kamala Harris’s multiracial identity. Trump complained about Harris’s alleged deception regarding her racial identity, telling ABC News senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, and Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba: “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.”
According to Oliver, this behavior was on par with Trump’s usual rhetoric regarding race. “I mean this in the most disparaging way possible: That went about as well as could be expected,” said the host. “Putting Trump in front of a Black audience and asking him to speak on race was never going to get more elevated than, ‘The lady said she was both Indian and Black, that is cheating!’”
Noting that Harris’ father is Black and mother was Indian, Oliver said of Trump’s running mate, “I cannot imagine what J.D. Vance, a man with three biracial children was thinking while watching Trump there. Although, you know what? He was probably thinking, ‘Look at that luscious upholstery. Do you think those cushions come all the way off?’” This was in reference to the false internet rumor that Vance wrote in his memoir about having sex with his couch, a blind item that Oliver attempted to fact-check with Vance’s campaign in a recent episode. “They—and this is true—hung up on us,” said Oliver in that episode, pointing out that hanging up does not technically constitute a denial.
Oliver then moved on to the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, which earned backlash from some (including the Vatican) for evoking Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper with drag queens. After showing footage of Trump calling the apparent recreation “a disgrace,” in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Oliver said, “It’s always strange to watch Trump act like he cares about religion. Because to echo something I heard someone say recently, I didn’t know he was a Christian until a number of years ago when he happened to turn Christian. All of a sudden, he made a turn and became a Christian person.”
Both the Olympics and Trump’s interview with the NABJ, during which he falsely asserted that “millions and millions of people…happen to be taking Black jobs,” converged on Friday, when Simone Biles shaded Trump after picking up a history-making pair of new gold medals at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. “I love my black job,” she wrote on social media alongside a back heart emoji and photos of herself showcasing a gold medal and GOAT necklace signifying her place as the greatest gymnast of all-time.