Late-night hosts look at what it took to condemn Steve King’s racism and what it takes to make a gourmet White House meal

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: 'He has to lie about everything. He can’t help it'

Late-night hosts cracked the case of Steve King’s racism and the real number of White House hamberders (yes, hamberders).

Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Maybe he ate the hamberders himself’

In Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel marked the historic occasion when “Donald Trump became the first US president ever to congratulate himself on making a fast-food order,” Kimmel said, flashing a picture of Trump behind his table of McDonald’s hamburgers, or, as he called them on Twitter, “hamberders.”

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“That’s right, hamberders,” Kimmel confirmed. “How does that happen? The E and the U aren’t even near each other on the keyboard. It’s like in the middle of tweeting he had a stroke or something. Or is it possible … he thought they were called hamberders until today?”

Kimmel also pointed out that while Trump claimed he served more than 1,000 hamburgers to the Clemson football team, “a source inside the White House claims the number of berders was much lower than that”. Kimmel then played a clip of Trump showing off the McDonald’s meal of “300 hamburgers” to reporters.

“He has to lie about everything. He can’t help it,” Kimmel said. “Or maybe he ate the 700 other hamberders himself.”

Trevor Noah: ‘Cross burnings: are they racist?’

On the Daily Show, Trevor Noah turned the condemnation of Iowa congressman Steve King’s racist comments into another case for “Trevor Noah: Racism Detective”.

“Racism – as we all know, it died for good the night that Barack Obama was elected president,” Noah said. “But a strange thing happened this week: we learned that racism may be coming back to life. And it turns out, it’s already in the House.”

Noah referred to the censure of King, who recently asked the New York Times how the terms “white supremacy” and “white nationalist” became to be considered offensive.

The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) Is Steve King a racist? Trevor Noah: Racism Detective is on the case. pic.twitter.com/TqiQ1RhAGm

The comments drew condemnation from King’s House Republican colleagues – he was stripped of his committee duties for them – but as Noah suggests, perhaps these colleagues could have reached a similar conclusion earlier.

“So as it stands, Steve King said a thing that is really racist. But he claims that he isn’t racist at all. So which is it? Is he racist, or not?” Noah said.

Dressed as a film noir private eye, Noah sought a definitive answer on King’s racism through past public comments, or “clues”, including clips in which King disparaged Mexican immigrants, said he didn’t want Muslims working in pork factories, and claimed that the west was a “superior civilization”.

But does that qualify as racism? Noah asked, a pointed jab at media organizations’ reluctance to clearly label it. “Let’s look at the evidence,” Noah said. “On the one hand, we have Steve King being racist toward Mexicans, Muslims and the entire non-white world. But on the other hand, he says he’s not racist. Even I’m not good enough as a racism detective to crack this one,” he said.

“So I guess it will have to remain in the street. Join me next week when I investigate cross burnings: are they racist? Or just a dramatic way to roast marshmallows.”

Stephen Colbert: ‘That’s how I got my golf body’

Over at the Late Show, Colbert admired how the president hosted a White House meal of America’s most gourmet food: McDonald’s.

Donald Trump ordered the massive fast-food order for the Clemson Tigers under the reasoning of “you guys aren’t into salads”.

“You are precision athletes,” Colbert continued, in the voice of the president. “You need to fuel your big machines with performance nuggets and vitamin cheese. That’s how I got my golf body.”

Colbert noted that not everyone was there for vitamin cheese, and showed a clip of a Clemson player remarking on camera, upon entering the White House: “I thought this was a joke.”

“Yeah, we all thought it was a joke. Then election night came around,” Colbert said. And if you thought the event could be any less dignified, “well, apparently, you forgot Donald Trump has a Twitter account,” Colbert said.

“That’s right. In addition to hamberders, there were chorken McNerglets, fronch firs, felayshofitch and of course, pizzazz,” Colbert added.