And after a few days of being on his best behaviour for the King, we’re glad to report Donald Trump is already back to his usual self
Donald Trump has left the country.
The sun genuinely came out as he flew away from Chequers on Marine One – which was, we’re told forced to briefly make an emergency landing because of a trivial hydraulics issue.
But after that, he was off on Air Force One and away back to the US.
And after a few days of being on his best behaviour for the King, we’re glad to report he’s already back to his usual self.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld:
- Late night hosts rallied around Jimmy Kimmel
- Trump lied about banning Sadiq Khan from the state dinner
- Then he was pretty racist about a sitting congresswoman
- He had a chat with President Xi about TikTok
- And the US government might not get shut down over a row about healthcare funding. Maybe
Here’s all that and more that you need to know:
1. Late night hosts rally around Kimmel
Hosts of late night comedy shows have rallied around Jimmy Kimmel after his suspension from ABC.
Jimmy Fallon had a couple of OK dad jokes.
But it was Jon Stewart and his former Comedy Central buddy Stephen Colbert who had the funniest responses.
Colbert – himself on the chopping block after a set-to with the President – went up first, his monologue on Thursday with the animated song “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” but replaced the lyrics with “Shut your trap. Shut your trap.”
(For those who don’t know, Disney owns ABC, Kimmel’s network.)
He also responded to remarks Trump’s deeply unhinged broadcast commissioner Brendan Carr made that it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming “they determine falls short of community values.”
“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,” Colbert said to loud applause from his audience.
When Colbert talked with New Yorker editor David Remnick about Kimmel’s suspension, he said: “What we are seeing now is the government acting at the direction of the president of the United States to put pressure on, to manipulate, to silence and even to shut down institutions of the free word.”
And Stewart, who normally only presents the Daily Show on a Monday, sat behind his desk for an extra special episode last night.
The show opened with a voice-over promising adherence to the party line.
“We have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show,” it said.
“Coming to you tonight from the real (expletive), the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” Stewart said.
“The Daily Show” set was refashioned with decorative gold engravings, in a parody of gold accents Trump has added to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the Oval Office.
Stewart fidgeted nervously as though he was worried about speaking the correct talking points. When the audience members reacted with an “awww” he whispered: “What are you doing? Shut up. You’re going to (expletive) blow this for us.”
He took on a more stilted tone when he started describing Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom, calling the president “our great father.”
“Gaze upon him. With a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him,” he said.
2. Trump falsely claimed he banned Sadiq Khan from state banquet.
On Air Force One, on the way home from Chequers, Trump claimed to the press corps that he had banned London Mayor Sadiq Khan from Wednesday’s State Banquet.
This is abject nonsense, but we’ll come back to that.
“I didn’t want him there. I asked that he not be there,” Trump said of Sir Sadiq.
“He wanted to be there. As I understand it, I didn’t want it. I’ve not liked him for a long time.
He added: “I’ve not liked him for a long time. I have a certain pride in London, in the UK, my mother was born in Scotland, and when I see Mayor Khan do a bad job – the stabbings, the dirt and the filth – it’s not the same. I didn’t want him there.”
City Hall said the Mayor “didn’t expect or seek” an invitation to the bash, something that has been known for several weeks.
He’s not routinely invited to state banquets.
A source close to Sir Sadiq said: “Trump’s politics is one of fear and division. This includes talking down our great capital city.
“London is a global success story – it’s open, dynamic and safer than major US cities. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons record numbers of Americans are choosing to make London their home.”
3. Trump spoke to Xi about TikTok on the phone
Trump is spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the phone this morning in a push to finalise a deal to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US.
It would be the second call with Xi since Trump returned to the White House and launched sky-high tariffs on China, triggering back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the two nations.
But Trump has expressed willingness to negotiate trade deals with Beijing, notably for TikTok, which faces a US ban unless its Chinese parent company sells its controlling stake.
Trump later said he and Xi will meet at a summit in South Korea next month and he will travel to China early next year.
4. Republicans failed to slap down a member of congress over ‘out of context’ Charlie Kirk remarks
Republicans, led by deeply unhinged South Carolina representative Nancy Mace, had been trying to get Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman, publicly shamed, and kicked off her committee seats over comments she made about Charlie Kirk following his murder, which she said had been taken out of context.
Days after the assassination she accused Kirk of having “downplayed slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth shouldn’t exist.”
She went on: “There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate. There is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that, you know, his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.”
She added: “There are a lot of people who are talking about him [Charlie Kirk] just wanting to have a civil debate. These people are full of s**t”.
She later posted on Twitter: “While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone.”
In the end, four Republicans sided with Democrats, and the move to censure failed by one vote.
5. Trump was pretty racist about it
Brian Glenn, the Trump-approved “reporter” for Real America News, who many will remember as being the guy who berated Volodymyr Zelensky over his outfit, asked Trump about Omar on Air Force One.
He stated, wrongly, that Omar had been censured by congress yesterday, and Trump immediately reached for her Somali heritage.
He said: “Good. I think she should be impeached. Is she originally from Somalia? How is their government? Do they have a president? Do they have anything?”
Ms Omar’s family fled Somalia in 1991 during the outbreak of civil war, which basically dismantled the state. It’s not had a fully functioning system of government since. Which is why her family fled.
“I love these people, they come from a place with nothing.. and they tell us how to run our country… She should be impeached and it should happen fast.”
Trump appears to be suggesting here that only people who are born in America should be allowed to stand for Congress, something which would require an amendment to the constitution.
6. And then he doubled down on his racism
Trump later continued his racist attacks on Ms Omar’s Somali heritage on Truth social.
He was responding to a tweet listing defendants accused of being involved in a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota’s Housing Stabilisation Service – which dished out grants to help the elderly, mentally ill and disabled find stable housing.
Their names were Moktar Hassan Aden, Mustafa Dayib Ali, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow, Anwar Ahmed Adow.
The Department of Justice says they’re just the first to be charged with crimes related to the scheme – and they didn’t all work together – they were involved in four separate companies.
As far as I can tell, neither DoJ or any media reports have established the country of origin of any of the accused. They all ran, or were related to, businesses operating in Minnesota.
So Trump, obviously wrote: “Does Ilhan Omar know these people? Are they from her wonderfully managed Home Country of Somalia?”
He followed up the post, with another blindingly racist set of attacks.
“Ilhan Omar’s Country of Somalia is plagued by a lack of central Government control, persistent Poverty, Hunger, Resurgent Terrorism, Piracy, decades of Civil War, Corruption, and pervasive Violence. 70% of the population lives in extreme Poverty, and widespread Food Insecurity,” he wrote.
“Somalia is consistently ranked among the World’s Most Corrupt Countries, including Bribery, Embezzlement, and a Dysfunctional Government. All of this, and Ilhan Omar tells us how to run America!
“P.S. Wasn’t she the one that married her brother in order to gain Citizenship??? What SCUM we have in our Country, telling us what to do, and how to do it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Again, Omar left Somalia when she was 8 years old. Nobody has established that any of these people were actually from Somalia. And Minnesota is a big place, there’s no reason to believe Omar knew any of them. Unless you’re being pretty racist about it.
Nevertheless, the White House’s official Twitter account reposted Trump’s first Truth post, with the monocle emoji.
7. The House voted against a government shutdown. The Senate probably won’t
The House of Representatives (barely) passed a bill that would extend government funding for seven weeks and avoid a partial shutdown of government functions on October 1.
Republicans would need 60 votes to pass it in the Senate – but Democratic leaders are adamantly opposed to voting for the measure if Republicans don’t let them have a say.
“Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!” Trump wrote on Truth social.
Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats are working to protect the healthcare of the American people, and with the GOP controlling the White House and Congress, “Republicans will own a government shutdown. Period. Full stop.”