At Long Last, John Oliver Went After Donald Trump, And It Was Wonderful
"You are either racist or you're pretending to be, and at some point there is no difference."
It’s kind of scary to admit, but all signs point to Donald Trump becoming the Republican nominee for President of the United States in July. He’s won three of four Republican primary and caucus contests, he’s finally picking up serious endorsements, and national polls have him poised to sweep Super Tuesday this week.
Trump’s strangely enduring appeal among a wide portion of the American electorate has long silenced the once-confident predictions that his campaign would be a flash in the pan, and none of the myriad outrageous things he’s done and said over the last nine months have burst his seemingly indestructible bubble.
But with the contest starting to get really serious, it’s time to put the toys away and figure out how catastrophic a Trump Presidency would be. That was the thrust of the latest episode of Last Week Tonight; while it indulged a little in the easy and endlessly fruitful business of mocking Trump, it drew welcome and much-needed attention to the frequently disturbing, bigoted and violent sentiments he expresses. Looking at Trump as a legitimate Presidential candidate — which he is — turns him from a reality-show buffoon, confident huckster and likeable outsider into something horrific.
That point was illustrated the other day, when he picked up an endorsement from David Duke, a former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, and failed to distance himself from the white supremacists eagerly spruiking his campaign. As Oliver put it, “you are either racist or you’re pretending to be, and at some point there is no difference.”
The end of the segment contains some pretty wild and deeply satisfying jabs, as is Last Week Tonight‘s style, but the broader point the show makes — that we can’t ignore or brush off this guy anymore — is sorely overdue.