Stephen Colbert roasted President Trump for trying—and failing—to intimidate the justices of the Supreme Court.
Trump made the surprise announcement on Tuesday that he would attend the Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship.
Birthright citizenship was established by the 14th Amendment in 1868, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States... are citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration has argued that children shouldn’t be granted automatic citizenship if their parents were in the U.S. temporarily or illegally at the time of their birth.
Colbert described Trump’s in-person appearance at the Supreme Court hearing as “mob boss-level intimidation” in his monologue on Wednesday. He compared Trump’s behavior to that of Don Michael Corleone in The Godfather.
“In fact, I’ve been told we actually have footage of Chief Justice Roberts waking up this morning,” Colbert said. He played the oft-referenced scene from The Godfather in which Jack Woltz wakes up to find the severed head of his prize-winning horse in his bed.
Although Trump’s attendance at the hearing was also interpreted as an intimidation attempt by the protesters outside the court on Wednesday morning, the alleged plan doesn’t appear to have been successful.
Trump stared down the court’s justices for 90 minutes, but he walked out after his presence had no apparent effect on their handling of the case.
Colbert mocked “President Adderall” for leaving the hearing early. Quoting from the Daily Beast’s coverage of the event, he explained, “Midway through the morning, a ‘humiliated’ Trump stormed out of the ‘catastrophic’ SCOTUS hearings.”
“Humiliated or just confused?” Colbert asked.
Breaking into a Trump impression, Colbert joked, “Well, that was awkward. All nine of them wore the same black muumuu. The worst production of Sister Act I’ve ever seen."
After leaving the hearing, Trump trashed the Supreme Court on his Truth Social account.
“We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!” he wrote.
Critics pointed out that this claim is not true. Pew Research Center notes that “32 other countries around the world” have similar birthright citizen laws.
While many countries in the Eastern Hemisphere have stricter citizenship requirements—Australia, for instance, requires a person’s parents to have been legal residents—the United States’ approach to birthright citizenship is the clear norm throughout North and South America.
