Just over six months into Donald Trump’s second presidential administration, “Late Night” host Seth Meyers is starting to lose his mind a bit over the headlines he has to dig into during “A Closer Look.” So much so that, on Monday night, the NBC host spent a little longer on a story about radioactive wasps, simply because “I’m stalling.”
To kick off the fan-favorite segment, Meyers looked back on olden times, when he could start things off by just talking about a new infrastructure bill proposed by former President Barack Obama. But in 2025, the comedian noted, the headlines are “relentless and insane” — and to prove it, he rattled some off.
“Before I even get to the title card, I have to come out here and say something like Donald Trump fired the commissioner of Labor Statistics because the jobs numbers were bad for him. The administration showed leniency to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell by moving her to a minimum security prison,” he listed.
“The President threatened war with Russia by announcing on his crappy social media site that he was moving nuclear submarines into the region. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that it was shutting down after being defunded. The Senate confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is the U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C.,” Meyers continued.
These were only about half of the major headlines from just the last few days — others included the discovery of radioactive wasps, the president weighing in on “Euphoria” star Sydney Sweeney’s jeans ad, and more — prompting Meyers to wonder how much might have changed between taping the show and when it actually aired.
“If you’re watching this on TV at 12:30 in the morning, there might be a breaking news ticker under me that says there’s no more Internet, we’re back to 13 states, and the wasps can vote now!” Meyers joked. “Point is, I don’t want to take a closer look, but guys, it’s in my contract. For more on this, it’s time for, you know.”
As he properly got into the segment, Meyers spent quite a few minutes on the radioactive wasp story — a nest was found at a South Carolina location that once made nuclear bomb material — as it was one of the only headlines not related to or caused by Trump.
That said, the host did wonder if Trump’s “weird puffy hand” was actually the result of him injecting venom from said wasps in an attempt to get superpowers. Meyers then surmised that Trump’s dance style is actually just the man attempting to fly, and that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would absolutely push the story that the president has wasp powers.
Eventually, though, Meyers acknowledged how long he was dwelling on the goofy idea. “Guys, look, if you think I’ve spent too much time on this wasp story, it’s because the rest of the news is also s–t and I’m stalling,” he admitted. “Because I don’t want to get to the rest of the news.”
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.
