Donald Trump lashed out at a universally admired, Republican-appointed federal judge over the weekend, going so far as to preemptively blame him for any terror attack that might occur on U.S. soil. In doing so, Trump reiterated his bizarre notion that the judicial branch of government has no right to put checks on his various, unconstitutional executive actions. And Trevor Noah, finally with the chance to respond on Monday night’s The Daily Show, could barely feign a smile as he dug into the disturbing details of Trump’s continued quest to “take a bad situation, and make it worser” (to use, in Noah’s phrasing, “alternative words”).
Noah honed in on the credentials of Judge James Robart, an appointee of former President George W. Bush—and, in turn, he described just how disturbing Trump’s attempt to discredit him really was. Noah’s a comedian, sure, but he seemed especially at a loss as to how to spin jokes out of Trump’s undermining of democracy. “Trump’s threatening the judge by blaming any future terror attack on him—and that’s not an accident, it’s a strategy,” Noah explained. “It’s a strategy straight out of the authoritarian handbook … He’s laying the groundwork to subvert an entire branch of government.” Yeah, there’s just not much to laugh at there.
