Late-night hosts on Thursday addressed the terror attack in Barcelona, president Trump’s response to it, and his aides’ mounting frustrations at his response to last weekend’s events in Charlottesville.

“I want to take a moment to send our thoughts to the people of Barcelona, Spain, who suffered a horrific attack today,” Stephen Colbert began. “A vehicle drove into a crowd in that city, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more. This is a heartbreaking reminder that evil is real and the United States is not alone in fighting it.”

“I also want to note that today President Trump said the right thing, tweeting, the ‘United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough and strong. We love you,’” Colbert continued.

“Thank you, sir. Simple, dignified, presidential,” he said. “That’s what you hope for. He’s right. We love you, Spain. And I was sincerely happy to see that kind of moral leadership from our president for about 45 minutes. Because then he tweeted: ‘Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years.’”

The host went on to detail the myth about General Pershing, a story Trump repeated on the campaign trail multiple times.

“There’s a story about General Pershing, an American general who fought Muslim insurgents in the Philippines about a century ago,” Colbert said. “Trump likes telling the story about how Pershing executed Muslim prisoners of war.”

Colbert then showed several clips of Trump peddling the story about General Pershing, in which he supposedly captured 50 Muslim prisoners of war, dipped bullets in pig blood, shot 49 of them, and ordered the lone survivor to tell others about what happened to the others.

“That is a dark story. No wonder his kids turned out the way they did,” Colbert continued, channeling his impersonation of the president to imagine bedtime stories in the Trump household. “And then the big bad wolf slaughtered two of the three little pigs, and he told the third one, you piggy, you go back to the sty and tell your buddies no more brick houses.”

Colbert continued: “Trump’s point is we’ve got to be tough like we used to. But here’s one problem with that: the story is not true. It’s been called a ‘poorly sourced yarn’. Poorly sourced yarn, by the way, also what Ivanka uses in her clothing line.”



“One historian said, ‘this story is a fabrication and has long been discredited. I am amazed it is still making the rounds,’” Colbert explained. “If it wasn’t for our president, a lot of things wouldn’t be making the rounds.”

“The story is complete nonsense,” he concluded. “However, one thing about General Pershing that is true is this quote of his: ‘A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops’.”



Seth Meyers discussed the mounting frustration on the part of Trump’s aides, many of whom anonymously expressed their distaste for Trump’s Tuesday press conference, where he doubled down on his unwillingness to place full blame for the Charlottesville confrontation on the part of the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who gathered there.

“The president has come under tremendous criticism for his response to Charlottesville, but apparently for some of Trump’s aides the problem was not that he defended white supremacists, but that he said it out loud in front of the cameras,” Meyers began, detailing reports that aides were “frustrated, exasperated, and stunned but not quite surprised”.

“So Trump’s staff isn’t upset he’s a racist. They’re upset we found out about it,” Meyers quipped. “For his part, Trump almost seemed relieved to have finally gotten off his chest how he really feels. In fact, those close to him say he’s happy about how his Tuesday press conference turned out.”

“Of course he is,” Meyers continued. “Trump is incapable of feeling regret. Trump feels regret as often as he feels Melania’s touch.”

The host continued: “Politico reported yesterday that Trump had lashed out mainly out of anger and that his notorious temper was driving his behavior. ‘White House officials and a former advisor say the triggers for his temper are if he thinks someone is lying to him, if he’s caught by surprise, if someone criticizes him, or if someone stops him from trying to do something or seeks to control him’.”

“So basically, all the things that happen to a president every day,” Meyers said. “Trump’s aides talk about him like he’s a caged gorilla at the zoo.



“But not all of Trump’s aides and allies tried to distance themselves from Trump’s unhinged press conference,” Meyers continued. “There’s also Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, whose ties to white nationalists are well known, which is odd because no one disproves the idea that white people are a master race more than Steve Bannon.”



Meyers went on to detail Bannon’s rare on-the-record interview with the American Prospect, where he offered his thoughts on the response to Charlottesville, its political prospects, infighting in the White House and trade with China.

“He said this to the American Prospect about the Democrats,” Meyers explained. “‘The longer they talk about identity politics, I got ‘em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.’”

“Hey man, are you trying to sound evil?,” Meyers asked. “I guess it’s no coincidence that you look like Kuato from Total Recall.”