On Wednesday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert had some fun mocking the weird news that Donald Trump wants his signature on physical checks mailed to Americans as part of the coronavirus relief package, by imagining them as a really depressing collector’s item.
For those of you catching up, on Tuesday Trump made the wholly unprecedented decision — literally no president has ever done such a thing — of ordering his signature on those checks, a move that could end up delaying the much-needed checks by several days.
Making things weirder, presidents aren’t actually authorized to sign legal disbursements by the U.S. Treasury department, in order to ensure government payments are nonpartisan. But a fake commercial on “The Late Show” suggested they could at least remind people of how Trump has handled this whole pandemic.
“The United States Treasury Department proudly presents the Donald J. Trump commemorative coronavirus checks,” the fake ad says. “Each check is emblazoned with Donald Trump’s actual signature, and features a dramatic image of the president punching the virus in the face.”
“Each check is lovingly dated April 1, in memory of the date the president assured us this crisis would miraculously go away,” the ad continues. This is true by the way: in February Trump said it would “miraculously” go away by the beginning of April. His own health advisers strongly disagreed with this assessment but despite this, on Feb. 28 Trump repeated the assertion, saying “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Notably, this did not happen.
“So commemorate everything the president didn’t do. Order your coronavirus checks, signed by Donald Trump, today,” the ad continued.
“Please allow 8 to 10 weeks for delivery, or longer if his hand cramps up,” it concluded.
Watch the clip above.