Late-night hosts on Tuesday addressed Donald Trump’s cancellation of the White House celebration featuring the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles after it was reported the majority of players did not plan to attend.

Trevor Noah

Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah discussed the president’s decision to cancel the event.

“For the 500th consecutive day of the Trump presidency, there is drama coming out of this administration,” Noah began. “This year, most of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles said that they would not be visiting President Trump. And so the president replied: ‘I broke up with you first.’”

Noah went on: “Can we just acknowledge how weird it is that under Trump no one wants to visits the White House anymore. The Golden State Warriors wouldn’t go last year. The Eagles won’t go this year. In fact, the Cleveland Browns released a statement saying the only reason they’ve never won the Super Bowl is because they don’t want to meet Trump. Apparently they’re not losing, they’re #resisting.”

"Whenever Trump is losing an argument he just grabs the anthem and holds it in front of himself like, ‘You wouldn’t hit the anthem, would you?’”



Trevor on the Trump-Eagles breakup: https://t.co/20Z6I9JvgV pic.twitter.com/KvzUnzSKpB — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 6, 2018

“If you were the president and, like, 40 out of 50 players said they weren’t coming to your party, you’d probably be embarrassed,” the host said. “Or you’d come up with a crafty excuse about how those players didn’t stand you up. They stood America up.”

Trump, Noah explained, held an event dubbed the “Celebration of America”, where he led hundreds on the South Lawn, including a group of Marines, in a rendition of the anthem and God Bless America. “If you’re thinking, I’ve never heard of an anthem party, yeah, there’s no such thing,” the host joked.

“Whenever Trump is losing an argument, he just grabs the anthem and holds it in front of himself,” said Noah, before impersonating the president. “You wouldn’t hurt the anthem, would you?” Noah then showed footage from the event, where Trump appeared not to know the words to the song God Bless America.

“You know, you would think if you invited people over for a patriotism party,” Noah said, “you would at least know the words to America’s favorite songs.”

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert began: “If you’re a sports fan, there is a tradition that when you win the Super Bowl you go to the White House. Well, the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles were supposed to be at the White House today but last night the White House press office issued a statement from the president that said the Eagles were disinvited because,” the host quoted, “‘They disagree with their president because he insists that they proudly stand for the national anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.’”

“But here’s the thing,” Colbert said. “No Eagles players took a knee or stayed in the locker room during the anthem last season. So Donald Trump is blaming a group of black guys for something they didn’t do. He’ll have to rename the Eagles the Central Park Five.”

“But Fox News never lets the truth get in the way of a good story,” the host said, noting that, in a segment about Trump’s decision to disinvite the team, the network showed numerous photos of Philadelphia Eagles players kneeling in prayer while telling viewers the players were kneeling during the anthem.



“Eagles tight end Zach Ertz pointed out on Twitter that was actually footage of him praying before games with teammates well before the anthem,” Colbert added. “Faced with the fact that he got this wrong, Trump doubled down on Twitter and attacked the NFL’s new compromise of letting players stay in the locker room before the anthem.”

Colbert continued: “So if the Eagles didn’t protest the anthem, then why did Donald Trump cancel this event? Well, I’m guessing maybe, possibly, because the only people planning to attend from the team were two or three players, the owner and the mascot.”



“So it’s crazy, but here’s the extra-crazy sauce,” Colbert said. “When Trump disinvited the Eagles, he didn’t cancel the event.” Instead, the host explained, he held a an event to “honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the national anthem”.

“Yeah, forget the Eagles!” the host quipped. “We’re going to celebrate the symbols of our country, like, Eagles!”