Late-night hosts spoke about the most recent developments in the Trump administration including his ongoing deportation attempts.
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert said that visits to the US had gone down 11% in recent months and that Las Vegas had reportedly seen an $18m drop as a result.
“People from overseas are frightened to come here,” he said before then referencing a Guardian report that shows that there has been the biggest drop in Australian tourists since Covid.
He joked: “Do you know how bad things have to be to scare off Australians?”
Meanwhile, Trump has been “ignoring court orders left and right” including refusing to stop planes filled with people being deported to El Salvador and since “stonewalling the judge” who ordered them to stop.
He is now claiming there is probable cause to hold the administration in criminal contempt.
Colbert also spoke about the much publicised tale of Kilmar Ábrego García who was mistakenly sent to El Salvador and whose return the supreme court has ordered the administration to facilitate. Trump officials have said they will leave it up to the country where he has been sent, should it want to return him.
He joked that the US was “a gentle passive giant that would never put pressure on a sovereign nation”.
In an interview this week on Fox Trump referred to American citizens as “homegrowns” as he warned of more deportations. Colbert said that was “what your cousin calls the crappy weed he’s trying to sell you”.
Trump also spoke of violent criminals who are bumping people over the head with a baseball bat. “Did Donald Trump grow up on the mean streets of Looney Tunes?” he joked.
Trump’s “snatch-and-grab immigration policies” led to a fiery town hall at which the 91-year-old Republican Chuck Grassley fielded angry complaints. “He’s so old he also showed up to the town hall to complain,” Colbert joked.
There is also a concerted effort to cut federal funding for the public broadcasters NPR and PBS even though “they’re already operating on a shoestring budget”, because they allegedly do not align with the priorities of the Trump government.
Colbert joked that Sesame Street would become Sesame Street: Bert and Ernie Have Wives Now.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host spoke about “cruel and criminal” deportation policies while also mentioning the Ábrego García case.
He called Trump a “lunatic” who “just pulls things out of his ass” and spoke about his “12 interviews a day” including his latest on Fox, in which he “vomited out a new idea” that would involve immigrants deporting themselves.
“Usually when Trump offers an immigrant money and plane tickets to go away, it’s because he’s getting divorced,” he joked.
A bombshell report also came out this week from the Wall Street Journal that focused on Elon Musk and his “harem of baby mamas”.
The billionaire has been focusing on his “efforts to seed the world in his own image” by trying to “recruit women to carry his children” before buying their silence.
He has at least 14 children but there could be “many more mini-Musks out there”.
Kimmel added: “You’ve heard of Alien vs Predator, Elon might be both.”
He briefly mentioned the ongoing war with Harvard “until they agree to a thorough de-woking”, before then finding time to poke fun at Mike Lindell, whose junky internet show experienced embarrassing technical difficulties this week.
“He may be the only person on Earth whose life was better when he was smoking crack,” he joked.
