Stephen Colbert on Trump's 'loving' tariff: 'That's what you say if you don't know what a tariff is'

Late-night hosts on Tuesday discussed Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Sam Nunberg’s erratic cable news appearances, and Trump’s tweet about the Academy awards.

Colbert on Nunberg's threat to Mueller: 'You know he can arrest you, right?' Read more

Stephen Colbert: ‘Trump’s not afraid to make war, mister’

“The big story continues to be Trump’s trade war,” began Stephen Colbert. “On Thursday, he slapped a 10% tariff on aluminum and a 25% tariff on steel. It could spark a trade war, especially after Trump’s trade adviser said there would be no exceptions made for allies.”

The host then explained that the EU has threatened to retaliate with tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon and bluejeans.

“But Trump’s not afraid of no trade war, mister,” Colbert joked, showing the president’s tweet in which he wrote “trade wars are easy to win.”

“Yeah, wars are easy to win,” the host shot back. “The war starts, you get your dad to get you five draft deferments, the war ends. So easy.”

Colbert then explained that the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is among the Republicans opposed to Trump’s tariffs, showing footage of Ryan advocating for a more “surgical” and “prudent” approach.

“It turns out surgical is not the adjective Trump would use,” Colbert joked, showing a clip of the president saying the tariffs will be “loving”.

“What’s a loving tariff?” Colbert asked. “I don’t understand what a loving tariff is. That’s the sort of thing you say if you don’t know what a tariff is, or what love is.”

Trevor Noah: ‘And then he started snitching’

Meanwhile, Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah discussed Sam Nunberg’s infamous string of TV appearances on Monday afternoon.

“Today, there was yet another resignation,” Noah began. “Chief economic adviser Gary Cohn quit today. So I think, at this point, the White House staff is just John Kelly and a fax machine that Jared isn’t allowed to use.”

Noah went on: “Yesterday, we were introduced to [Robert] Mueller’s latest victim, a former Trump aide by the name of Sam Nunberg, who was so freaked out when get a subpoena from Mueller that he went on national television and lost his goddamn mind.”

The host began by showing Nunberg’s early afternoon TV appearances, in which he vowed to defy Mueller’s subpoena and said that if he went to jail because of it he would laugh.

The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) Trump’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn resigns while Sam Nunberg tries to clean up the mess he made.



Full episode: https://t.co/8A9JCqwwWP pic.twitter.com/bzVCo94PkJ

“Yesterday, Nunberg decided to go on TV and tell everyone that he was not a snitch,” Noah added. “And then, he started snitching.”



Noah showed more clips from Nunberg’s interviews, in which he said, among other things, that Mueller has something on Trump, called Paul Manafort a crook, claimed Carter Page colluded with the Russians, said Sarah Sanders is a “terrible press officer”, called Trump the “most disloyal person you’ll ever meet”, and added that Hope Hicks and Corey Lewandowski were having an affair on the campaign trail.

“The stereotype is that women gossip, but every man who works for Trump has proven that stereotype wrong,” the host continued. “The women, though, they keep their shit on lock. Kellyanne Conway never snitched. You actually leave interviews with her knowing less than when you started. Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Fort Knox. Hope Hicks: she was communications director and we never even heard her speak.”

Jimmy Kimmel: ‘An authentic Trump hand … gold and tiny’

Finally, Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted Sunday night’s Oscars, responded to Trump’s criticism of the ceremony.

“I got a little surprise this morning,” Kimmel began. “I woke up, I brush my teeth, I look at my phone, I got a text saying look at Trump’s Twitter account, as if I wasn’t going to do that anyway. So I did, and this is what I see.”

Kimmel then read Trump’s tweet aloud, which said: “Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY. Problem is, we don’t have Stars anymore - except your President (just kidding, of course)!”

“Trump loves saying the ratings are down to insinuate that it’s a show of some kind of support for him,” Kimmel said. “But the truth is, every year since Netflix happened, ratings are down for every big TV show: the Super Bowl, Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes, but Trump thinks he caused the ratings to go down.



“Since I was the host of the Oscars, I felt like it was incumbent upon me to respond, so I tweeted: ‘Thanks, lowest rated President in HISTORY.’”

“I want to point out that my tweet got more than twice as many likes as his tweet,” Kimmel quipped. “The president’s self-titled son took a break from selling tickets to the White House to tweet about the Oscars, too.”

Donald Trump's top economic adviser Gary Cohn quits Read more

Trump Jr, in response to a tweet asking who didn’t watch the Oscars, added a small raised-hand emoji.

“If you look closely, you know that’s an authentic Trump hand because it’s gold and tiny,” Kimmel said.