Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘A ridiculous buffoon and an incredibly dangerous menace’

Late-night hosts talk Donald Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly calling him a fascist and Tim Walz’s dad-humor burn about Elon Musk’s stage antics.

Seth Meyers

With less than two weeks to go in the presidential campaign, Donald Trump, as usual, “manages to be both a ridiculous buffoon and an incredibly dangerous menace at the same time”, said Seth Meyers on Wednesday’s Late Night.

Among his antics: “working” for half an hour at a McDonald’s, where he acquired a “french-fry certification” pin that he showed off at a rally in North Carolina. “Maybe he can put it on his lapel right next to his convicted felon pin and his cognitive decline pin,” Meyers quipped.

“This is what Donald Trump should be doing – talking to wrestlers,” as on a recent podcast, “and trying out jobs at McDonald’s like he’s hosting a reality show on TLC”, said Meyers. “Instead, he’s in a dead heat to become the next president and if he wins, even the people who worked for him in his first administration say he will govern as a dictator.”

Related: Colbert on early voting: ‘Same people who have already done their Christmas shopping’

That includes Trump’s former chief of staff, the retired general John Kelly, who went on record with the New York Times saying that Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure”.

“It’s amazing to hear an exasperated general go through the dictionary definition of fascism and tick off every box for Trump,” said Meyers.

Kelly also said that Trump openly praised Hitler as someone who “did a lot of good things”.

“But don’t worry,” said Meyers, “if the news alarms you, Trump’s apologists and rightwing media have an explanation: maybe Trump didn’t realize that Hitler’s generals were also Nazis.”

Meyers then played a clip of the Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade defending Trump’s comments, saying: “I can absolutely see him going, ‘you know what, it would be great to have generals who actually do what we ask them to do,’ not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals were Nazis [sic], or whatever.”

“The lack of morality one has to have to go to work cleaning up Trump’s affection for Hitler’s generals is astounding,” said Meyers. “Like why wouldn’t Trump say, for example, FDR’s generals or Churchill’s generals? Surely history shows they were pretty good listeners.

“There’s only one reason that he fucking likes Hitler,” he added. “It’s a bombshell revelation, but you don’t have to look far to find Trump’s affection for dictators and his aspiration to be one.”

Stephen Colbert

On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert opened with the vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz mocking Elon Musk’s stage antics for Trump. Walz panned Musk “jumpin’ around, skipping like a dipshit” onstage.

“That is top-tier midwestern dad slam,” Colbert laughed. “I believe the scale goes ‘mister’, ‘pal’, ‘knucklehead’, ‘real piece o’work’, ‘bozo’, ‘dipshit’ and ‘silently stands up and walks to garage’‘.”

Colbert also discussed Kelly’s remark that Trump falls into the “general definition” of fascism. “He also falls into the specific definition of a fascist,” Colbert amended. “So this is less of an October surprise and more of an early-autumn ‘no shit’.”

Though Kelly told the Times that Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern as a dictator if allowed, admired Hitler and his generals and had no understanding of the constitution or the rule of law, he declined to endorse a candidate, citing his record as a military officer.

“Ok … technically,” Colbert laughed. “This is kinda an endorsement, right? ‘I am your father, and I would never pick a favorite child but Kyle did lose our dog, fail out of school and framed his parents for several of his arsons. The point is, I love both my children equally: my straight-A student Amanda and Kyle, the flaming dog loser. No choice! No judgment.’”

The Daily Show

And on the Daily Show, the guest host Michael Kosta dug into Kelly’s comments. “That is huge, although I will say – telling America you’re about to elect a fascist is a pretty major thing to announce in an audio clip, you know?” he joked. “You couldn’t put on pants and say it into a camera? That’s kinda like if aliens were invading and the president told us in a screenshot from the Notes app. Just seems like the wrong medium.”

On a serious note, though, “that word ‘fascism’ gets thrown around a lot, and it’s one of those words you hear frequently and you don’t really know what it means, like emoluments or demure,” said Kosta, who reminded viewers of the real definition: “a nationalist, political movement that builds a cult around an all-powerful leader who vows to protect his loyal subjects from racially inferior others and the enemy within.”

“Now that you know that, upon hearing John Kelly call Trump a fascist, you’re probably thinking: ‘yeah, duh,’” he said. And Kelly’s comments echo those by other generals in Trump’s administration, including Mark Milley, HR McMaster and Jim Mattis.

“Keep in mind, these guys were the adults in the room in the first Trump administration keeping Trump from going full dictator,” said Kosta. “And they’re not going to be there the second time around. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not ready to put the future of American democracy in the hands of Secretary of Defense MyPillow guy.”