Late-night hosts on Monday night discussed Donald Trump’s vacation in New Jersey, rumors that Vice-President Mike Pence is gearing up for a run at the presidency in 2020, and the launch of Trump TV.

“As of Friday, Donald Trump is on a 17-day vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey,” Stephen Colbert began. “He’s there to relax after months of grueling golf at Mar-A-Lago.

“The president swears he’s not taking it easy,” said Colbert, reading Trump’s tweet from Saturday morning in which he claimed it was not a vacation and that he would be taking “meetings and calls”.

“Meetings and calls? Trump has to do all that during his vacation? Man, I would not want to work for Vladimir Putin,” Colbert quipped. “Over the weekend, footage leaked of the president taking one of his high level meetings, a summit of New Jersey’s top bridesmaids.”

Colbert then showed the clip of Trump greeting a group of bridesmaids on the golf course at his New Jersey residence.

“Trump’s buddy Vladimir Putin is also taking a break these next few weeks,” Colbert continued. “He’s in Siberia putting on a snorkel and shooting fish with a spear gun, though he later claimed the fish were killed by Ukrainian separatists. Of course, since it’s Putin, he also released photos of himself chilling by the river.” Describing a bare-chested image of the Russian president, Colbert said: “Those sanctions have already devastated the Russian shirt industry. I would love to go on a bro-down fishing trip with Vladimir Putin. I bet it’d be so much fun I’d never come back.”

The host continued: “Of course, Trump needs a little vacation right now because his poll numbers have reached a new low. Only 33% of voters approve of the job he’s doing. As Meatloaf so famously said: ‘Two out of three ain’t bad, but one out of three sucks.’”

“With the president’s approval rating plummeting, some have their eyes on Trump’s job, including current vice-president and dad-who-has-a-favorite-marching-band, Mike Pence,” Colbert explained, referring to a New York Times report detailing developments that suggest Pence is gunning for Trump’s job. “The New York Times is claiming Pence is preparing for a 2020 run, citing the fact that Pence has created his own political action committee. That’s not normal for a vice-president.”



“No veep has acted this suspiciously since Grover Cleveland’s vice-president, Eustace P McBackstabby. Yesterday, Pence issued this strong denial,” Colbert said, referring to Pence’s statement calling the Times report “disgraceful and offensive”.

“He’s definitely running,” Colbert concluded.



Seth Meyers of NBC also weighed in on the latest out of the White House.

“Trump is taking 17 days to get away from DC and relax, although he keeps insisting he’s working,” Meyers began, also displaying the president’s tweet about his “meetings and calls”.

“Meetings and calls sound like how an eight-year-old would describe an adult job,” Meyers joked. “Now, we’ve already played many clips on this show of Trump criticizing then-president Obama for taking vacations and promising to never leave the White House himself if he won. In fact, we’ve played so many of those clips that we’ve run out. It’s not like there are an infinite number of clips of Trump contradicting himself.”

Meyer then showed a slew of clips in which Trump, as a candidate, vows to never golf as president, accusing Obama of not “making deals” for the American people.

“To be clear, I’m not criticizing Trump for taking vacations,” the host said. “I’m criticizing him for being a lying hypocrite. And even lying hypocrites deserve vacations.”

He went on: “As we know, Trump has signed no major legislation since he took office and his White House has been in constant chaos. So what does he think he’s done to deserve this vacation?”



Meyers then turned towards the launch of Trump TV, which is featured on the president’s Facebook page and airs segments about the “real news”.

“To get the message out, his team has started posting so-called ‘real news’ videos talking about the administration’s supposed accomplishments, like this one featuring former CNN contributor Kayleigh McEnany,” Meyers explained, showing footage of McEnany crediting Trump with a booming economy, low unemployment and a rising stock market.

“God, that was like state news crossed with a school announcement,” Meyers said. “‘It’s pizza day in the cafeteria, but you won’t hear that from the failing New York Times.’”

