We all have different strategies for coping with the daily madness that is the Trump administration, and Stephen Colbert’s is to diagram it. Back when Trump was on the campaign trail, Colbert broke out the “Figure-It-Out-A-Tron” on The Late Show to chart some of Trump’s cryptic, nativist, and self-aggrandizing remarks—and wound up with a big ol’ swastiska staring him in the face. On Monday night, Colbert turned to his handy-dandy chalkboard once again, this time to try to figure out what Trump is trying to bury under his latest scandal: accusing President Obama of wiretapping him.
“A lot of people say it was to distract from recent bad press,” noted Colbert. “He’s like a magician, misdirecting your attention with sleight of hand. And we all know Trump has the sleight-est of hands.” Colbert thinks it’s all a ploy to keep us from realizing the extent of Trump’s ties to Russia, which he demonstrated by diagramming the connections Trump has to Russian president Vladimir Putin, marking each incident with a P.
Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort keeping in regular contact with Russian officials? P. Current Attorney General Jeff Sessions meeting with the Russian ambassador while still a senator? P. All the major intelligence agencies agreeing that Russia tried to influence the election in Trump’s favor? That’s a lot of P.
“President Trump had better watch out,” said Colbert. “Or this could leave a stain on his legacy.”
