President Trump informed voters via social media this week that, once everyone else in NATO starts penalizing Russia for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Poland’s airspace, he’s also ready to impose sanctions on Russia. It was logic that, to Seth Meyers’ ears, sounds awfully similar to something middle schoolers would say.
To kick off his “A Closer Look” segment on Monday night, the NBC host first carved out time to remind viewers just how mad Republicans used to get when they felt Democratic presidents would “lead from behind,” though it was never clearly defined what that meant. Conservative pundits all celebrated when Trump was elected and re-elected, saying that leading from behind would end.
“No more waiting for other countries to act,” Meyers explained. “America acts first, and other countries follow us. You’ve got that world?”
At that, a news clip began playing that discussed one of Trump’s posts on Truth Social this week. In it, the president said, “I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed and started to do the same thing.” Trump added that, “I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when?”
“I thought America was back!” Meyers retorted. “And now you’ll only act if everyone else does it first? Trump’s using the same logic for American foreign policy that eighth graders use for smoking pot in the local school parking lot.”
“‘I’ll do it first if you do it first,’” he mimicked. “‘No way, man, you first.’ ‘OK, let’s do it at the same time. I’m ready to go when you are, just say when.’”
Meyers also latched onto Trump’s sentence structure in the letter, joking that he writes “with the uneven grammar and syntax of a scammer sending you a fake job listing.”
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.
