John Oliver took aim at President Donald Trump‘s plans for a “huge” ballroom — something he’s done before and also before that — and his contradictory claims over upgrades on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight.
Oliver started out by pointing to Trump‘s social media post amid his trip to China wherein he noted that “China has a Ballroom, and so should the U.S.A.! It is under construction ahead of schedule and will be the finest facility of its kind anywhere in the U.S.A.”
Said Oliver: “Because incredibly, despite everything going on in the world right now, Trump’s still relentlessly focused on what’s been called a ‘sweeping makeover’ of the White House and Washington D.C. In the past year, he’s installed two massive flagpoles, a Presidential Walk of Fame outside the White House, paved over the Rose Garden and redecorated the Oval Office, as if to answer the question, ‘What if an ancient Egyptian pharaoh owned an Airbnb?’”
Oliver then showed video of Trump last week making the argument that all of these upgrades are necessary.
“This place was not properly taken care of,” Trump said. “I was told by my wife, ‘You have to act presidential, so don’t use foul language.’ I won’t. Therefore, normally I would have said it was a shithouse, but I don’t want to say that.”
Said Oliver: “OK, to be clear, Trump’s foul language isn’t what’s been stopping him from being presidential. Simply not cursing wouldn’t make Trump a fitting president in the same way that a white coat wouldn’t make [Philadelphia Flyers mascot] Gritty a practicing oncologist.”
Oliver then turned back to the topic of the ballroom Trump has ordered to be built, which the Last Week Tonight host called Trump’s “most ambitious project” while noting that it “has spiraled out of control.” When the project was first announced, the White House said it would cost about $200 million and be paid for by Trump and donors.
“Since then, the projected cost has gone up to $300 million, then $400 million,” Oliver said. “And last week, he argued the only reason the cost has changed is because after ‘deep-rooted studies,’ the ballroom’s approximately ‘twice the size.’ And when a reporter dared to ask him about that on Tuesday, he kind of lost his shit.”
Oliver showed a clip of Trump talking to reporters claiming that the the project is under budget. “I’ve doubled the size of it because we obviously need that, and we’re right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule,” he said. When asked by a female reporter about the budget doubling, Trump replied: “I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person.”
Said Oliver: “OK, OK, I know it is not unusual for him to demean a female journalist, but even by his standards, that was bad. The only time it’s OK to yell ‘you dumb person’ at anyone is, as I think we all know, if you’re watching Jeopardy, and you know the answer, but the contestants don’t: ‘Who is Emily Dickinson, you fucking idiot?! Nineteenth-century largely unpublished female poet from Massachusetts — who is Emily Dickinson? You’re not a smart person.’”
Oliver then went on to talk about the reflecting pool upgrades, which went from about $2 million in estimated repairs to $13 million, and the fact that Trump said he was “gonna call three guys who I know worked on my swimming pools, which — come on — that is not how to fix a national memorial, it sounds more like the start of an incredible post-divorce girls’ weekend for Deborah,” Oliver joked.
The Last Week Tonight host also pointed to the contradictions in Trump’s statements that he was going to reach out to some contractors he knew to later claiming he didn’t know the contractor who won the contract after it was revealed to be a no-bid contract.
“Look, is this the most important thing this president could be doing right now? Of course it isn’t,” Oliver said. “That would be a tie between learning where Iran is on a map and finally listening to the three ghosts who’ve been waking him up every Christmas Eve for the last 70 years. It should really go without saying, if you are a president who’d rather focus on ballroom construction and pool maintenance than the crucial work of actually running a country, then I think it is fair to say, to borrow a phrase that I heard recently, you are not a smart fucking person.”
