Seth Meyers to Trump: ‘You can’t convince people the economy is good when they can see the truth’
Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s attempts to reassure Americans on the economy as the private sector sheds jobs and grocery prices keep rising.Seth Meyers devoted his main segment on Wednesday’s Late Night to the US economy, which has seen better days.“Costs of everything, from food to electricity, are soaring while employers are shedding jobs,” he explained.“This is when a president needs to show empathy and demonstrate that he knows the plight of hardworking Americans, and – oh no, as I’m saying this I’m remembering who I’m talking about and realizing that there’s no fucking way he’s going to do that.”Instead the president, in an interview with Politico this week, gave the economy the grade of “A+++++”.
“Now I know that sounds tone-deaf, but in fairness, it’s possible Trump was just glitching,” Meyers joked.And “it won’t surprise you to learn that Trump’s assessment of the economy is very much at odds with how pretty much everyone else feels about it”.A new Fox News poll even found that 62% of Americans blame Trump for the current economic conditions.“So it’s less of an A+++++ and more of an F minus minus minus minus,” Meyers noted.“Trump is running up against the same problem Biden had: you can’t convince people the economy is good when they can see the truth with their own eyes every time they buy their groceries or pay their heating bills,” he concluded.
“Trump thinks he’s crushing it but the American people think he’s – ” as always, Meyers quotes a news anchor – “‘sucking’.”In Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel rolled back the tape on Trump’s speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that was supposed to be about the economy but “was almost not at all about the economy”.“He hasn’t been out for a while,” Kimmel noted.“If he had talked for three more minutes, it would’ve legally been classified an Avatar movie, that’s how long he went on for.”In the nearly three-hour speech, Trump delivered “all his greatest hits: windmills, Sleepy Joe, bing bing, all the crowdpleasers.
He told the Maga faithful who are having trouble making ends meet that their kids don’t need so many dolls or pencils.He said you only need a couple of dolls and one or two pencils.The guy who bedazzled this room in gold thinks your child has too many pencils at school.“His strategy, it seems, is to just keep saying things are great,” Kimmel added.“Which is the same mistake Joe Biden made, by the way.
You can’t just tell people the economy is good when they’re paying more for everything.We know how much things cost.People are looking at the price of apples with our eyes.And you’re telling us to not see it.He wants us to be a bunch of not-sees.
”But the “most offensive” thing he said was that he was “big with Black people” because “they know a scam better than anybody”.“That’s right, his father scammed them all the time,” said an unamused Kimmel.“When he says ‘Black people’, he means Hershel Walker and Kanye West and that’s it.”And on the Late Show, Stephen Colbert celebrated “the holiday season” when “everyone is out buying stuff”.“Unfortunately, right now the most expensive thing you can do with stuff is buy it, because prices are up and Americans are not happy about it,” he added.
Colbert cited a recent study that found 76% of Americans view the economy negatively, though CNN claimed that “actually, things seem worse than they are,” calling this a “windchill economy”,“Windchill because – I think we can all agree – 2025 blows,” he joked,In other tough news for Trump, a new Fox News poll found that Trump has a 61% disapproval rating, while a different Politico poll found that 37% of Trump’s own voters reported the worst cost of living in their lifetime,“It’s gotta hurt more when it’s his own voters,” said Colbert,“They’re supposed to love him no matter what.
It’s like your parents sitting you down and saying: ‘Timmy, your mom and I are getting a divorce, and we want you to know: it’s your fault,’”So, to “convince everybody that the bad economy is actually good”, Trump addressed a crowd in Pennsylvania on Tuesday with “some sound advice on how to save lots of money this holiday season”,According to Trump, “you can give up certain products, you can give up pencils”,“How much does he think pencils cost?” Colbert wondered,(A pack goes for $4.
36 on Amazon, according to Late Show factcheckers.) “So saving money on pencils may not be the stupidest thing he’s said, but I’m going to say it’s No 2.”
Trump wants to destabilise European democracy. Where on earth is parliament? | John Crace
’Twas the fortnight before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Apart from a few exceptions. The Labour backbencher Matt Western had managed to secure an urgent question on President Trump’s new national security strategy and the Commons itself was remarkable for its absences. A roll-call of dishonour.Take Nigel Farage
US engaging in ‘extreme rightwing tropes’ reminiscent of 1930s, British MPs warn
The US is engaging in “extreme rightwing tropes” with echoes of the 1930s and threatening “chilling” interference in European democracies, British MPs warned ministers on Thursday.The House of Commons rounded on Donald Trump’s national security strategy, which stated that Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and vowed to help the continent “correct its current trajectory and promote patriotic European parties”.Matt Western, a Labour MP and chair of parliament’s joint committee on the UK government’s national security strategy, said: “The United States consensus that has led the western world since the second world war appears shattered.“The prospect of United States interference in the democratic politics of Europe, I believe, is chilling … The absence of condemnation for Russia is extraordinary, though not surprising.” He said the US pivot left the UK “especially vulnerable”
UK denies Milei’s claim of talks over Falklands-era ban on Argentina arms sales
The British government has denied it is engaged in negotiations to lift a ban on selling arms to Argentina that has been in place since the Falklands war.Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, told the Daily Telegraph his government had begun speaking to the UK about the restrictions.Argentina briefly invaded the Falklands Islands, which are British territory, in 1982. The war lasted 10 weeks, costing 255 British lives and 649 Argentinian before the invaders surrendered.Subsequently the policy of the British government has been that it will not allow weapons to be exported to Argentina if they are judged to “enhance Argentine military capability”
Sajid Javid told Boris Johnson he was Dominic Cummings’ ‘puppet’
Sajid Javid told Boris Johnson he was a “puppet” of Dominic Cummings before he resigned as chancellor rather than accept a Cummings-led takeover of his Treasury, he has said in an interview about his experiences as a minister.Speaking to the Institute for Government (IfG), Javid also said that his other departure from Johnson’s government, shortly before it collapsed in 2022, was because he had lost confidence in the prime minister after being assured that allegations about lockdown-breaking parties in No 10 were “bullshit”.Asked to assess the three prime ministers he served under, Javid, who ran six different government departments in eight years, described Johnson as “the least well briefed”, compared with David Cameron and Theresa May.In his first resignation under Johnson, in February 2020, Javid quit after being told by Johnson that he would have to fire his team of Treasury special advisers, known as spads, and work with new advisers selected by Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser.“I found that unacceptable – both firing my spads and then also how they would be replaced, because I thought I’d just be chancellor in name anyway,” Javid told the IfG as part of their ongoing series of discussions with former ministers
Keir’s performance in PMQs panto sets bar low enough for Kemi to stay as Tory leader | John Crace
With little more than a week to go until the Christmas recess, the Commons is in festive overdrive. Demob happy. A few minutes in to the year’s penultimate prime minister’s questions with MPs from both sides shouting and cheering, the speaker interrupted proceedings to say: “We don’t need the panto auditions any more.” To which the natural response was: “Ooh yes we do.” Because that’s pretty much the whole purpose of PMQs at the best of times
Keir Starmer appoints 25 Labour peers to strengthen support in House of Lords
Keir Starmer has appointed 25 Labour peers including a number of former senior government and party aides in an attempt to strengthen his hand in the House of Lords.Matthew Doyle, a former No 10 director of communications, and Katie Martin, a former chief of staff to Rachel Reeves, will be among those appointed to the upper house in a move first reported by the Guardian.Carol Linforth, a former Labour party chief of staff for operations, and Richard Walker, the executive chair of Iceland who switched from supporting the Conservatives before the 2024 election, will also receive peerages.Others on Labour’s list include Michael Barber, a Whitehall veteran who led Tony Blair’s delivery unit and now advises Starmer, and Len Duvall, the chair of the London assembly.The move brings the number of peers appointed by Starmer to 62
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