Late-night hosts discussed the president’s attempts to stoke fear before the midterm elections by focusing on the migrant caravan

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Late-night hosts criticised Donald Trump for his last-minute fearmongering before the midterm elections.

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Stephen Colbert

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert joked that there are “just seven more shopping days until Votemas”.

He called Trump “our fearmonger in chief” while talking about the president’s latest assertion that he will put an end to birthright citizenship.

“What do you call a man, a leader of a country, who thinks that what he dictates is more important than the constitution?” Colbert said. “He’s a dick.”

In an interview with Fox News, Trump was attacking the current policy, stating that it offers 85 years of citizenship. “I’m gonna say 85 years is pretty optimistic,” Colbert countered. “You know who the president is now, right?”

A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent was interviewed on Fox News and claimed that the migrant caravan could bring a number of diseases with them, including smallpox. “They’re so dangerous they could give us diseases that don’t exist anymore,” Colbert joked.

Trump is sending 5,200 soldiers down to the border to protect it from the asylum seekers as part of Operation Faithful Patriot which, according to Colbert, “beat out their second choice: Operation Loyal Eagle Freedom Boner”.

Trevor Noah

The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) What kind of “invaders” apply for asylum AND give the enemy three months’ notice? #TrevorInMiami pic.twitter.com/a2BJWM7mlu

On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah also focused on Trump’s familiar rhetoric. “He’s doing something really special, well it’s the thing he does best,” he said. “He’s scaring the shit out of his voters, specifically by using brown people. It’s sort of like Halloween, but a racist Halloween, or as Megyn Kelly calls it, Halloween.”

Noah then questioned why Trump needs to send troops to the border. “Instead of sending 5,000 troops to the border, why not send 5,000 judges and lawyers to help with the asylum process?” he suggested.

Noah continued: “In his mind, this is an invasion, and when I say in his mind, what I mean is on Fox News.”

He then showed various clips of the terminology used on Fox News to describe the caravan, with words like invaders and invasion coming up often. “What kind of invaders apply to come in and give the enemy three months warning?” he asked.

“Trump and his friends don’t even seem to know what they’re afraid of,” he said while showing conflicting clips.

But Noah does have some small hope for Fox News. “Even though this network might seem like one giant caravan of dangerous extremists, I believe there are people in there who mean well,” he said before showing Shepard Smith’s attempt to calm viewers down with facts.

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Seth Meyers

On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host also spoke about Trump suggesting he would end birthright citizenship. “Well, you can’t blame Trump,” he said, “He stopped reading the constitution after ‘We the people’.”

This week has also seen a woman confess to being paid to concoct a fake story about being sexually harassed by Robert Mueller.

“I don’t think anyone would have believed it anyway,” he said. “ Look at him. Mueller has never even touched his own butt. He thinks nodding at someone across the room is third base.”