Late-night hosts returned from their holiday vacation Monday night in full form — melting down over President Donald Trump’s proposed wall and the ongoing partial government shutdown.
“This is already shaping up to be a very different year for President Trump. He now faces real oversight from Congress for the first time now that Democrats have control of the House,” late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel said to raucous applause.
“Up until now the only oversight the president had to deal with is when Mike Pence would forget to pick his dry cleaning up. This is the year we Make America Great Again, again.”
Kimmel continued, “Humpty Trumpty is very focused on his wall. This is day 17 of the government shutdown. Nearly 800,000 federal employees are working without pay. And that is Donald Trump doing what Donald Trump does best, not paying the people who work for him. That is where he shines.”
“He’s going to declare a national emergency to fund this wall…is that something he needs to declare? Every day of this presidency is a national emergency,” he said.
Jimmy Kimmel then brought out a man who worked at a federal prison in California who was not being paid due to the shutdown.
To be clear, the Trump White House has already stated that it is supportive of back pay for federal workers, like this prison worker, once the shutdown ends, and it is tradition for all federal employees to receive back pay once the government opens up again.
Late-night host Stephen Colbert attacked the president as well, with his CBS show airing a cartoon clip of Yogi Bear dumping trash on President Trump, mocking him for the trash pile up in Washington, D.C. that’s occurred due to the ongoing shutdown.
Seth Meyers, meanwhile, went for easy laughs by fantasizing in typical fashion about President Trump going to jail.
In response to Trump saying that Russia used to be called the Soviet Union, Meyers said, “Look, sometimes you get involved in something that goes so badly, you have to change your name. For example, you take a job as Donald J. Trump, and you leave it as Prisoner 567891.”
“Although, let’s be honest. Let’s be honest. Best outcome, Trump cooperates with Mueller, rolls on everyone else, and goes into witness protection,” Meyers said, then mocking Trump’s voice, “Hi, I’m your new neighbor, Ronald Bump…I don’t want to say why I moved here, but it was Obama’s fault.”