Late-night hosts talk Maga weather conspiracy theories in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton and Bob Woodward’s new book on the Donald Trump White House.
Jimmy Kimmel
On Thursday evening, after Hurricane Milton made landfall and knocked out power for over 3 million Floridians, Jimmy Kimmel recapped “the lies that Trump and his crack team of wingnuts have been spreading” about recent natural disasters.
The far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene “has been pushing this bonkers idea that Democrats can somehow control the weather”, Kimmel explained. Greene and others are targeting Republican voting districts. “Not only are people believing this, meteorologists are getting death threats and angry phone calls from viewers who think they are covering it up,” Kimmel marveled.
“Donald Trump has pushed us to the point where we can’t even agree on the weather,” he continued. “What a stupid time to be alive. Has anyone thought about unplugging America and then plugging it back in again? Because we could use a reset.
“These poor local weather people, haven’t they been through enough?” he added. “They get up at the crack of dawn to help us figure out what jacket to wear, we reward them by sharing screengrabs where they’re standing next to a pattern that looks like a boner, and now this. It’s so mind-bogglingly crazy.”
Kimmel then played clips of interviews with Maga rally-goers where they avowed that the government – as in, the Biden administration – controlled the hurricanes.
“Donald Trump should be forced to live on an island with all these people,” said Kimmel. “Listen, dummies, the government can’t control the weather. The only person who can control the weather is Beyoncé.”
Kimmel also wondered why Trump was recently campaigning in California, a state almost certain to go to Kamala Harris, when the election will come down to a handful of swing states. He explained his theory through the old story of King Midas, with Trump as a narcissist whose narcissism brought too great of success. “Now that he’s up there alone, he can’t break the spell, it’s too strong,” said Kimmel. “He can’t admit who he really is, which is a sad, elderly con man farting on stage. It would kill him.
“So now he’s sabotaging himself,” he concluded. “He’s saying immigrants eat dogs, he’ll be a dictator on day one, he’s selling God Bless the USA Bibles in China. And he’s campaigning in states he has no hope of winning – does he believe he can turn those states into gold? Maybe, but I think it’s more likely that deep down, he knows the only way to reverse this curse is to lose the election. So let’s help this poor man do that.”
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers opened with news that the Kremlin confirmed a story, reported in Bob Woodward’s upcoming book War, that Donald Trump secretly sent Vladimir Putin Covid tests during the height of the pandemic. “Well, who are you going to believe? The Kremlin spokesman or the other Kremlin spokesman?” Meyers quipped.
Asked in a new interview about his former vice-president, Mike Pence, Trump said that they had a good relationship, but that “he couldn’t cross the line of doing what was right”.
“And if you’ve ever doubted that Trump knew he lost the election, the phrase ‘crossed the line’ proves it,” said Meyers. “No one ever crosses the line to do what’s right. They cross the line to do what’s wrong. No one ever says: ‘Darling, this flower arrangement you got me truly crosses the line.’”
In War, Woodward reports that behind closed doors, Joe Biden refers to Trump as “that fucking asshole”.
“Wow, who would’ve guessed Biden has so much in common with Melania?” Meyers quipped.
And according to a new CNN factcheck, Trump made at least 11 false claims during an interview this week with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “Only 11? Was it a four-minute interview?” Meyers laughed. “I feel like Trump could make 11 false claims during a haiku.”
