On Wednesday night Stephen Colbert discussed the Nato summit in Brussels, the first of Donald Trump’s three stops on his trip to Europe.

“It is the first full day of Donald Trump’s trip to Europe,” Colbert began. “He’s in Brussels for the Nato summit, then it’s on to England, then he’s going straight to hell – I’m sorry, Helsinki – to meet with Vladimir Putin.

“It’s not like he turned Nato upside down, right?” asked Colbert, who cited a New York Times report noting that Trump “kicked off his meetings on a contentious note”.

“Contentious is his only note,” replied the host.



“The bumpy ride started at a breakfast with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg,” said Colbert. Trump, who railed against the Nato alliance during his campaign and has criticized allies for not paying enough in defense spending, immediately took aim at Germany for acquiring 35% of its natural gas from Russia. “Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” said Trump, who tweeted on Wednesday that the US is “paying for Europe’s protection”.



Colbert continued: “We should have seen all of this coming because right before he left on the trip Trump talked about his three stops. Guess which one he was most excited about?”



In a press gaggle held before leaving for Europe, Trump said the UK was “in turmoil” and that his meeting with Putin “may be the easiest of them all”.

“I’m not ready to say our president is a Russian agent, but I have an agent and he doesn’t do as much for me as Trump does for Russia,” Colbert quipped. He then aired a clip from Fox News, where the network’s political editor said “you will not stop Donald Trump from realigning US foreign policy to be more favorable toward Russia”, adding that the president will “fly into Brussels like a seagull, defecate all over everything, squawk and fly away”.

“Look, if you like the president, if you don’t like the president, it don’t matter,” the host said. “Trump is trying to weaken the EU and weaken Nato and break up the European alliance, which is exactly what Russia wants. This is not a theory. This is what’s happening in public. What we don’t know is why.”