John Oliver Blasts Trump’s White House Meeting With North Korea: ‘A Propaganda Coup’
The ‘Last Week Tonight’ host also called out the president for lying to the press—and by extension, the American people—about reading Kim Jong Un’s massive letter.
HBO
“This week, the June 12th summit between the U.S. and North Korea was suddenly back on after Trump met with a North Korean envoy who’d brought him this gigantic, comically-oversized letter from Kim Jong Un,” said John Oliver. “And as if smiling while holding a letter from a dictator were not enough of a propaganda coup for North Korea, the president then raved about the letter to the press.”
On Friday, President Trump met with North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol at the White House, with the official indeed hand-delivering a huge letter from Kim Jong Un before posing for photos with a smiling Trump. After the hand-off, Trump announced that their summit was happening again after pulling out of it on May 24 via letter.
Addressing a gaggle of press following their meeting, Trump said, “It was a very interesting letter… At some point, it may be appropriate… I’ll be able to give it to you, maybe.”
Oliver tackled the meeting—and Trump’s strange reaction to it—on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight. “As infuriating a president as Trump is, he would be an even worse Moses. Oh, wouldn’t you like to see what’s on these tablets? How much? How much? Maybe I’ll show you later, if you’re lucky,” he joked of the cliffhanger-esque tease to the press.
And then, just eight minutes letter during that same press chat, Trump confessed, “I haven’t seen the letter yet… I may be in for a big surprise, folks!”
In other words: He lied, and then casually admitted to lying during the very same talk.
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“Yeah, you might though!” responded Oliver to the “surprise” line. “Because you just agreed to a summit without reading the contents of the letter that supposedly convinced you to do it. So, worse-case scenario, it’s a declaration of war; best-case scenario, it reads, ‘Donald, It’s me. I have run away to North Korea and I’m never coming back. Melania, [your third wife].’”
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