Trump's Mideast trip provides plenty of fodder for American late-night comedians

"Nice Western Wall, how'd you get Mexico to pay for it?"

By AMY SPIRO
Updated: MAY 23, 2017 23:30
Stephen Colbert on Trump's visit to Middle East
US President Donald Trump is without a doubt the favorite fodder for late-night comedians in the United States. And it’s easy to understand why, as he has already provided them with plenty of material in just his short time in office.
That was no different for Trump’s first overseas trip as president, and all the late-night hosts – including Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel – had jokes about his visit to Israel.
One of the biggest targets was the iconic images circling of Trump at the Western Wall – no surprise considering how much the president has talked about walls (and building one on the border with Mexico).
“Nice wall, how’d you get Mexico to pay for it?” Colbert joked the president was thinking.
“By the way, mazel taco everybody.”
Others cast doubts that Trump was really absorbing the intensity of the moment.
“Now I don’t know what’s going through his head here,” Kimmel said, after showing a photo of Trump at the wall. “My guess is that he’s pretending to be praying or something.”
Fallon echoed that sentiment: “Staff said he was praying, but people nearby heard him counting ‘Mississippi.’” And both Kimmel and Colbert picked up on the White House’s typo in a press release that said Trump was visiting the region to promote “lasting peach.”
“I think this one is really going to resonate with the American people, because Americans really want something with peach in it,” Colbert said. “Peach ice cream, peach cobbler, impeach – anything with peach.”
And according to Kimmel: “I guess it was supposed to be peace, but who knows, the president’s got a lot of fruit on his plate. He’s trying to make peach in the Middle East, he’s still got sour grapes about the election and every morning he still goes bananas on Twitter!” The president’s apparent gaffe – where he said yesterday in Jerusalem that he “just got back from the Middle East” – was also mentioned.
“No wonder he thought Middle East peace was so easy,” said Meyers. “He wasn’t accounting for Israel.
“‘I had a great weekend, we achieved peace between the Saudis and the Arabians,’” Meyers imagined Trump saying.
And Trump’s surprising ad-lib on Monday, where he said he “never mentioned the word or the name Israel” to the Russians in the Oval Office, got plenty of play as well.
“Yes, I gave away classified information to the Russians that everyone knew is from Israel,” Colbert said in his Trump imitation. “But I didn’t say Israel, until right now: Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel.”
Meyers also expressed amusement at Trump’s admission.
“Dude, nobody said you did. It’s like if your wife said, ‘Are you having an affair?’ and you said, ‘I am not sleeping with Jenna.’” Fallon, as is his style, took a more lighthearted tone when it came to the president’s trip.
Noting that Trump landed in Tel Aviv, Fallon imagined the president asking: “Who’s Aviv and what am I supposed to tell him? I’ve seen his show on Netflix and I love it.”
He also mentioned the special gift Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave to Trump during his visit.
“Netanyahu gave Trump a 150-year-old Bible,” said Fallon.
“Which got awkward when Trump autographed it and gave it back to him.”