Brow Beat

Seth Meyers Looks at Trump’s First 100 Days, Is Not Very Impressed

Seth Meyers returned from a couple of weeks off on Monday with an assessment of Donald Trump’s first 100 days, his failure to accomplish any of his promises, the government shutdown fiasco, his tenuous grasp on the passage of time, his bizarre Mexican wall tweet, that amazing Associated Press interview, and a bunch of other Trump-related disasters that you may have already read about on Slate dot com, now in a convenient, Seth Meyers–narrated form. As you’d expect of an attempt to catch up on several weeks’ worth of Trump bloopers, boners, and outright fuck-ups, it turns into a bit of a laundry list. On the other hand, since current events have been nothing but a laundry list of bloopers, boners, and outright fuck-ups for, well, nearly 100 days, it’s hard to see how else Meyers could talk about Trump, even without a multiweek backup.

And Meyers does a pretty good job of keeping the parade of garbage entertaining, which is about all you can ask these days. Comparing Trump’s unstuck-in-time claim that he “would still beat Hillary in popular vote” to a tweet from Meyers saying that “Rihanna would still go out with me,” is great, as is Meyers’ explanation for the public’s fascination with Sean Spicer. But the Trump administration seems to be becoming something of a comedy trap for this kind of Daily Show/Weekend Update/Colbert Report/John Oliver–inspired segment. It’s been a while since late-night writers could get laughs just by having the host read the president’s words, and, to be fair, Trump’s answer to the AP when asked about his border wall is hilarious:

I don’t know yet. People want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall, my base really wants it—you’ve been to many of the rallies. OK, the thing they want more than anything is the wall. My base, which is a big base, I think my base is 45 percent. You know, it’s funny. The Democrats, they have a big advantage in the Electoral College. Big, big, big advantage. I’ve always said the popular vote would be a lot easier than the Electoral College. The Electoral College—but it’s a whole different campaign (unintelligible).

But although the president’s answers are funny and tragic and horrible, pointing out that he’s a dummy by using his own words is (a) fish-in-a-barrel and (b) going to make for a long four years. So please, Seth Meyers and company, throw a little more anarchy and a lot more disrespect in the mix, like you did in the brilliant Breitbart News interview earlier in April. Everyone who’s watching your show knows how bad things are; that’s why they’re watching your show. More spitballs!