Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Trevor Noah all returned from summer hiatuses on Monday night with one joke on their collective mind: ripping President Donald Trump for finally wearing a mask during the coronavirus pandemic after months of stubborn defiance.
“Ha-ha! Fell for it, sucker. This was all the long con. We’ve been wearing ’em just to get you to look stupid,” Colbert said on Monday's episode of The Late Show. “You’ve been health’d.”
Way back in April, when the Centers for Disease Control first recommended citizens should wear face coverings in public when they were not able to practice social distancing, Trump downplayed the need for masks. “This is voluntary,” the president said while announcing the new guidelines. “I don’t think I’m going be doing it.”
In a twist, Trump remained true to his word. As cases of the coronavirus pandemic soared to record numbers in the United States, the president was never once officially photographed while wearing a mask. The closest he came was in May during a visit to a Ford Motor Company factory in Michigan: a clandestine photograph of Trump wearing a face covering was leaked to the press. “I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Trump said to media members at the time. A few weeks later, Trump claimed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that people who wore masks were doing so as a sign of protest against him.
But finally, on Saturday during a visit to Walter Reed Hospital, Trump was seen in public with his face covered. “I love masks in the appropriate locations,” Trump told reporters before going to the hospital. He added, “I’ve never been against masks, but I do believe they have a time and a place.”
“Yes, there is a time and a place,” Colbert joked on Monday. “Pandemic and face.”
On Late Night, Meyers was similarly critical of Trump, especially because it took him months to acquiesce to basic public health and safety measures. “Wow, only four months too late. What’s he going to do next, drag his Christmas tree out to the curb? Start making sourdough starter and watching Tiger King? Govern?” the host asked. Later, Meyers noted, “Trump’s team acted like this was a big deal, but who cares? You’re four months late. It’s like someone saying, ‘Should we not do a live-action Cats?’ now.”
Trump’s resistance to wearing a mask was also the subject of Fallon’s ire. “Yeah, it was a really smart move—if today were March 13th,” joked Fallon, who returned to his New York studio on Monday for the first time since the coronavirus quarantine. “Years from now, that mask will be in the Smithsonian, and none of us will be able to see it because we’ll still be in lockdown.”
He added, “You know, we’re just a few days away from Trump claiming that he was the first person to wear a mask.”
But it was Noah on The Daily Show who focused on what Trump’s embrace of face coverings would mean to the president’s supporters, many of whom have similarly not worn masks in public.
“Look, I’m glad that Trump finally put a mask on, but it’s got to be confusing for his supporters who have been mocking face masks this whole time,” Noah said on Monday. “I mean, to them, this must be like seeing Trump at a Black Lives Matter march with AOC.”
The host then addressed Trump directly, specifically about how he looked wearing the mask. “And I know that is part of the reason Trump resisted wearing the mask for so long is because he is self-conscious about his image, right? That is why he didn’t want to do it. So let me go on record as saying: President Trump, don’t listen to any of the haters out there, who are saying you look like a diabetic Bane or ‘Shredder from the Ninja Turtles if all he shredded was cheese.’ You look great, so please keep wearing that mask.”
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