John Oliver devoted his Season 12 Last Week Tonight premiere to recapping and eviscerating the first four weeks of the new Trump Administration, saving his sharpest comments for the dismantling of USAID.
Saying that the worlds “single largest humanitarian donor” got “butchered” at the behest of Elon Musk, Oliver noted that 12 USAID employees are now assigned to the entire country of Africa, a number, he said, that wouldn’t even staff a Chili’s.
Oliver pointed out various Musk-Trump misrepresentations about USAID (“50 million condoms to Gaza”) before showing Musk saying “no one bats 1000.” Showing a shuttered Johannesburg clinic that treats women with sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, Oliver suggested putting a sign on the closed building stating, “We can’t help you thanks to one of the worst white guys South Africa has ever produced (which is really saying something).”
Oliver also took swipes at the Musk interns now given access to American’s financial data, one of whom, Edward Coristine, recently used the internet name “Big Balls” and shared websites about child porn and the KKK.
“I never thought I’d say this,” Oliver said, “but I expected better of Big Balls, or as he’s now known Senior Adviser at the State Department and at the Department of Homeland Security.”
The Last Week Tonight host also nailed Democrats who are taking a “wait and see” approach to Trump’s actions.
“The next four years are going to feel incredibly shitty,” Oliver said. “The potential for pain is devastating
as is the sheer amount of it that has already been doled out. We see wealthy powerful men using the levers of government for their personal advantage and their personal grievances, and we’re being governed by people who think good public policy consists of cut off funding to anyone who isn’t me, make it illegal to mention people who are different from me, and let’s steal Canada while we’re at it.
“Now is absolutely not the time to be looking away and saying ‘this is what you fuckers voted for’ and turning your backs…What’s ahead of us is going to be exhausting.” Oliver went on to finding a balance “between the hell going on” and seeking joy where you can, like listening to the “catchiest song ever written” – the TikTok viral video “Hostile Government Takeover,” a homemade song by a TikTok user named Todd.
Filmed in his kitchen as he readies for work, Todd sings, “We’re in the middle of a hostile government takeover / I wanna talk about it but I’ll be late for work / And if you’re saying ‘wait a minute, who we have to stop this?’ / We had one, but you didn’t want that lady in office…Now that we’re all part of a Nigerian prince scam / Surprise, surprise, it end up being a white man / Oh, I just wanna know what the hell do I do? Probably drink.”
Watch the Last Week Tonight video, which includes “Hostile Government Takeover” above.
