For those who hoped Trevor Noah would bring an international sensibility to late night in the vein of John Oliver’s, the Trump administration’s predilection for dominating the headlines has all but ensured that the new Daily Show host stays on the unfortunate topic that is our ongoing constitutional crisis. But while the latest string of bombshell breaking-news stories remained his primary focus on Thursday night, Noah took some time to redirect his attention beyond our borders and provide a sobering, if mildly comforting, reminder: The rest of the world is a mess, too.
Yes, Brazil is in the midst of a wide-ranging bribery scandal that runs to the top of its political food chain. News broke that the king of the Netherlands was working a side-job as an airline pilot. And in events that literally hit too close to home, Turkish President Erdogan’s security detail launched a “brutal attack” on protestors outside of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. “I guess this is the world we live in now,” Noah theorized after recapping such bizarre events. “World leaders have a second job, the king of Holland is a pilot, the Queen drives for Uber possibly—and Donald Trump is a Taskrabbit for Putin.” Indeed, it wasn’t before too long that Noah was back on the Trump beat, covering the story that had broken the night before—old news, in other words, given the rate of the last few news cycles.
