Comics, including Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert, discuss the influence of Trump’s controversial adviser and the confirmation of Betsy DeVos

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Late-night hosts discussed the balance of power in the White House on Tuesday, referring to Donald Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon as “the real president”.

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On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah called the Breitbart editor turned politician “the subject of the bestselling autobiography If Eczema Were Human: The Steve Bannon story”.

He spoke about his position on the national security council, an idea Bannon came up with himself which he then included on an executive order that Trump reportedly signed without being aware of its contents. “He basically did it like a kid sneaks a candy bar into his mom’s shopping cart,” Noah said.

He referred to Bannon as “the real power behind the throne here” and then took aim at his controversial Time magazine cover, where he’s referred to as ‘the great manipulator”.

“On the one hand, he’s on the cover of Time magazine,” he said. “On the other hand, he’s on the cover with this photo … The man looks like a satellite image of a storm on Jupiter.”



The assertion that Bannon is calling the shots led Trump to tweet that he is still in control and makes his decisions “largely based on an accumulation of data”.

Noah joked: “Trump and data have less of a relationship than Trump and Tiffany.”

He then decided to congratulate Bannon: “As of this moment, you are the real president – but then again, they kind of didn’t elect Trump either.”

Noah also found time to discuss Trump’s claim that the media is ignoring certain terror attacks committed by radical Islamists.

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“If Trump wants to talk about ignoring terror attacks, let’s start with the terror attacks he’s ignored because what stands out about this list is that, like an Ashy Knees Anonymous meeting, there were no white people in it,” he said.

Noah criticized Trump for ignoring the number of attacks that occurred at the hands of white Americans, such as Dylann Roof.

“So here we are people, once again, learning that when a Muslim person commits terror it’s part of a deadly conspiracy, but when white extremists commit acts of terror over and over again, well, that’s merely a continuing series of isolated events,” he said. “It’s like saying: ‘I’m not addicted to bath salts, that happened one time … on a hundred consecutive days!’”

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert also spoke about Bannon’s influence on Trump and the country.

“A lot of people are saying that he’s the guy really running the White House, but I’m not sure if I believe that because there’s no proof that anybody is running the White House right now,” he said.

Colbert also covered Bannon’s Time magazine cover, saying: “He looks like a helmetless Darth Vader on meth,” and “I don’t know if this guy is calling all the shots, but he’s certainly doing all the shots.”

Colbert worries that Trump’s increasing awareness of Bannon’s power will lead to a rather dark place. “Remember, his new best friend is Vladimir Putin, so if Trump offers you sushi, don’t eat it,” he said.

He went on to discuss the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, the “education secretary and woman ahead of you at Starbucks with a really complicated order”.

The choice has been criticized by many, given her lack of relevant experience but also for a far more worrying reason.

“There’s a tiny chance that money played a role since DeVos’s family gave around $200m to Republican causes, including donations to four senators on the committee overseeing her confirmation,” he said. “That reminds me of a math problem: Betsy has $200m, she needs 50 votes. How much money can she give to each senator to make sure public schools get less?”

On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host spoke briefly about Trump’s relationship with Putin, a debate that has the reality TV star turned president “mad as a hornet”.

He brought up Trump’s tweet claiming that he has no relationship with Putin and that the “haters are going crazy”.

“You know, there actually was a time in our history when if a president used a phrase ‘haters are going crazy’, we might be alarmed,” he said. “We might have even been told to stay in our homes if the haters were going crazy.”



Kimmel joked that the pair had matched on Tinder, and then played a video highlighting the many times that Trump has in fact claimed that he does indeed have a relationship with Putin.

On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon also spoke about DeVos and the tight vote that won her the seat. “That’s 51 to 50 – or, as Trump would call it, a landslide,” he said.

He also spoke about the bathrobe controversy with a story alleging that the president enjoys watching TV in one, at odds with Sean Spicer claiming that he doesn’t even own a bathrobe. “Meanwhile everyone in America is like, ‘Stop making us picture Donald Trump in a bathrobe,’” Fallon said.