Trump vs. The World: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

[Music] Donald Trump the only president who combines the sordid extramarital affairs of a young JFK with the dead-eyed puffiness of a post-watergate Richard Nixon look I know we have talked about Trump a lot on this show but tonight we'd like to do it from a slightly different angle and that is focusing on his relationship with the world because while we were away you may remember one particular remark he made according to the US president Africa is a that's right he said that he absolutely said that except to be fair to him it's actually worse because he reportedly called Africa Haiti and El Salvador holes which is just not okay and I do acknowledge that I personally have called Belgium a multiple times but in my defense a I'm not president and be Belgium is a load some chocolate gulag with no objective reason to exist so you can see that it's very different you can see that and look you probably saw people on u.s. TV being justifiably appalled by those remarks but what you may not have seen is the response from the countries he insulted honestly so sure then she's like has he ever we not sit home we people we just like it is a yes because it doesn't matter what you have he's still going to the same hole we're the same worms will eat into Wow you know it says something about the Trump era that the phrase the same worms will eat into actually qualifies as a hopeful thought I would honestly like that crocheted on a pillow so I can wake up to it every morning and look look it is not like that's the only time that Trump's remarks have caused an international uproar he said that Korea used to be part of China which outraged South Koreans he claimed that Germany owes NATO vast sums of money which it does not and in the UK he retweeted these anti-muslim videos from a far-right British group which triggered massive condemnation and instead of fully apologizing for it he said it was a big story where you are but it was not a big story where I am and that is exactly his attitude if it wasn't big where I could see it then it wasn't big so forget mastering foreign affairs Trump may not have mastered object permanence which you really need to be a good president or even a good baby and yet here is the crucial thing the rest of the world continues to exist whether Trump acknowledges or not so tonight let's try and answer a few basic questions at first what is Donald Trump's foreign policy because it seems to be little more than repeating a single phrase America first America first America first again America first America first it will be America first from now on America first now if you are another country watching that you may well be wondering wait when has America's attitude ever not been America first they've been putting America first since the day they arrived in America very much second but say here Donald Trump telling in recent years we've been getting the short end of the stick on the campaign trail he often complained that America had become a global punch line and promised that he could reverse that the world is laughing at us folks the whole world is laughing at us they're laughing at this that's what's going on in our country the world laughs at us folks the world laughs at us we're not gonna be a laughingstock like we have been and we have been believe me oh we're not going to be a laughingstock anymore huh it is insane that Trump this guy this guy this guy thought he would end the laughter it's like a flamingo in boxer shorts named Phineas J rocket dump ran for president under the slogan time to get serious now for the record since Trump became president if anything the world is laughing harder than ever before because while all US presidents do get made fun of impersonating Trump has become an international cottage industry Israel has Trump kicking a Muslim man while dancing lewdly to guns and roses Germany has him dancing to Uptown funk Spain has him flipping off the world and again dancing like an idiot and there's more here he is in Pakistan here he is in Bulgaria here he is in Taiwan here he is in Ethiopia here's a pretty shitty one from Turkey where they're not even trying here's a Korean Trump and here's one from an Italian comedy show see him born in the USA on a stealth fighter before being taken out with a bucket on his head are any of these funny I don't know is anything about trunk funny anymore somehow the world's most objectively laughable human has become a comedy graveyard when laughter goes to die and in case you think any of that may have been good-natured ribbing a recent Gallup poll shows that the world's approval rating of US leadership has dropped to 30 percent after being at nearly 50 percent just two years ago that is a precipitous drop in popularity is the equivalent of replacing gal gadot in the Wonderwoman franchise with Matt Lauer look I know I love the Donald Trump and others may not give a about what the world thinks about us but they really should for a number of reasons chief among them something called soft power which yes I acknowledge does sound like an erectile dysfunction medication for chinchillas so soft yet so hard but but basically basically refers to the ability to get others to do what you want them to do without using carrots or sticks it's kind of a country's brand and a nation soft power can come from many sources from your pop culture to the ideals you express to your reputation and diplomacy can play a major part in it even hard power practitioners like Trump's own Secretary of Defense Jim Mad Dog mattis supports the soft power work that's done by the State Department that is why a few years back he gave a full-throated defense of properly funding it frankly they need to be as as fully funded as Congress believes appropriate because if you don't fund the State Department fully then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately now that is scary because buy more ammunition is his way of saying without diplomacy there will be more Wars he doesn't need more ammunition so he can make more bullets earrings for his Etsy store because he's not just Secretary of Defense he also crafts accessories for the elegant weirdo now unfortunately though Trump has shown little interest in soft power his administration recently proposed a 29 percent cut to the State Department and foreign aid and there are any high-level vacancies at the State Department to say nothing of our lack of ambassador's from Belgium to Belize South Korea to South Africa President Trump has a problem his embassies have no ambassador Turkey Jordan Egypt Qatar and Saudi Arabia all without ambassadors holy South Korea Turkey and Saudi Arabia those are countries where you really need an ambassador it's not like Lipson Stein where you can basically scrape by with a sign that says never stop Lichtenstein II and as for the ambassadors that Trump has appointed some of them are frankly not grapes when Trump appointed Peter Hoekstra ambassador to the Netherlands they were a little upset over there as this interview shows speaking of threat at one point you mentioned in a debate that there are no go zones in the Netherlands and that cars and politicians are being set on fire and then I didn't say that that is actually an incorrect statement yeah we would call it fake news okay okay I didn't say that so and so he's given himself some wiggle room there as long as he didn't say exactly what the reporter just claimed about no-go zones and politicians being set on fire he's technically correct the only thing in the whole world that would make him not correct is if say video of him saying that cars and politicians are being bird and that yes there are no go zones in the Netherlands there are cars being burned there are politicians that are being burned and yes there are no go zones in the Netherlands it's pretty weird not to recall saying out loud there are politicians that are being burned in the Netherlands it's not the kind of thing that you do and immediately forget about like driving to work or seeing the movie the post I mean I have a vague memory of walking into a darkened room eating Milk Duds and thinking Meryl Streep is a treasure but the rest is a complete blank but when Trump was asked about his understaffed State Department he claimed that it didn't really matter for one key reason let me tell you the one that matters is me I'm the only one that matters because when it comes to it that's what the policy is going to be I'm the only one that matters the only one that matters is me it's hard to tell if Donald Trump is laying out a diplomatic strategy or demanding that daddy buy him an oompa loompa then his actions are critical to our nation's foreign policy and that brings us to our next question how is his approach to the world going and the answer surprisingly is great and now this I'm kidding it's been a disaster in fact to give you a sense of how much damage he can do in very little I can't believe you nearly bought that he could do a very little time just look at last summer's back-to-back NATO and g7 summit it was just three days of meetings in which time he reportedly told European leaders that quote the Germans are bad very bad then shook Emmanuel krons hands so aggressively it seemed like he was trying to masturbate an elephants then at the g7 conference the next day world leaders unsuccessfully tried to convince him to stay in the Paris climate Accord and in the middle of all of that he gave a speech where he failed to explicitly reaffirm article 5 the basic principle that NATO members should come to the aid of each other when attacked affirming it is routine for presidents and it was even in Trump speech until being apparently deleted at the very last minute blindsiding top members of his own national security team and after witnessing Trump's erratic behavior for just three days Angela Merkel was so shell-shocked she made this statement the times when we could completely rely on others are to an extent / I've experienced this in the last few days and that's why we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands that was the day after the summit I wasn't even supposed to give a major speech that was at a campaign event held in a beer tent and that means we're probably lucky there was an event of any kind otherwise she would have just yelled out Europe is on its own at her nephew's piano recital and this brings us to our final question what are the consequences of this well one big one of them could be that there is a leadership vacuum in the world so who will fill that well in Europe the obvious candidate is Germany but even they know that there may be an issue with that well whenever I talk to people in our neighbor countries they mostly expected sort of the leadership of Germany but on the other side whenever I talk to the people in these countries with a very good memory what happened in the first half of the 20th century they are very reluctant talking about a German leadership you're right you're right I'm so glad that you brought that up because I I didn't want to be the first one to bring it up but you are absolutely right when people hear Germany wants to take a leading role in Europe most of us do still think no they're still in timeout and they know why they know what they did not see Germany now now globally it seems that China is set to be the biggest beneficiary because they have been aggressively seeking to increase their influence and soft power something that has not gone unnoticed a nation head of government recently explained to me that at every regional conference Washington sends a couple of diplomats whereas Beijing sends dozens the Chinese are there at every committee meeting and you are not he said the result he explained is that Beijing is increasingly setting the Asian agenda it's true the u.s. is absent at many important meetings and that doesn't even include meetings that Jared Kushner was supposed to attend but he couldn't find a room and he was too shy to ask someone and then he realized it was too late anyway so he just killed an hour wandering around the lobby pretending to be on the phone and the piglets China's increased influence should be alarming because they are an autocratic country you don't necessarily want China setting global priorities on things like human rights and democracy and yet Trump's reckless behavior is opening the door to exactly that happening not to mention the fact that what he's doing is going to make it harder for him to accomplish his own goals he wants to contain North Korea or to do that you might want to appoint an ambassador to South Korea he wants Germany to spend more on its military okay but maybe stop publicly shaming Merkel if you want her to be able to sell that idea back home and it wants to contain security threats like Isis and Al Shabaab in African countries then maybe don't call African countries shitholes truck can say that he doesn't care because his approach is America first but you need allies to get anything done foreign affairs is like sex if you loudly announce that you will always come first you're going to have trouble finding partners and as for on to other promise that the world will stop laughing it is not just comedians doing that it's world leaders Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a depressed in the last year and he had himself a bit of fun Donald I we are we and we face pulse they're the ones we're not.we we're waiting in the real balls get out of the online bones they also guy that is a key ally using the fact that our president is a pathological liar as a punchline and crushing that room like a fourth grader with a carrot stick stuck up his nose anything think that was grim let me show you one more clip we found when we were looking for Trump impersonators around the world this one is from Russian TV with a comedian making fun of Trump's suspiciously close relationship to Putin and there is a fun little surprise for you just at the end Hillary the other day Hillary asked me Donald do you love Russia I answered yes I do I love Russia but you have no evidence against me by God that is as happy as I've ever seen Putin ever I guess at least we now know what type of humor that Putin likes he likes the kind where he medals in another country's election succeeds has a joke about it made to his face in public and then realizes it all worked out no one can touch him that's the kind of humor that Putin likes it just creases him up look I know that all of this is depressing because it seems like America's reputation overseas is under attack from its own president which is just ridiculous soft power is an act of salesmanship it's selling your brand it is the one thing that Trump is supposed to be good at and he's blowing it so as an immigrant who has fallen in love with this country for what it's worth please allow me to speak to the rest of the world in America's defense for a moment because Donald Trump does not reflect America I mean to be to be completely honest to be completely honest who does reflect it a bit but the point is America is not one thing it's a beautiful mess of contradictions where good and bad are mixed together on one hand it makes Mountain Dew which tastes like a honeydew melon was by a radioactive cloud on the other hand it also made this awesome bed shaped like the Batmobile you can fall asleep in that thing and be Batman if Batman somehow got locked out of the Batcave and had to sleep in his car but that's the American dream right there America is the country that came up with YouTube which yes I know gave you in the world that head Logan Paul but it also gave you those videos of adults in t-rex suits on dirt bikes ballet dancing exercising and doing basic car repairs and by the way that magnificent dinosaur costume that's an American idea to that the point is America is the country that gave you Star Wars you're welcome and Scientology who were sorry about that and and sometimes what's great and terrible about us is just impossible to separate like look Popeyes Chicken it's objectively disgusting but I would run across traffic to eat this but the point is trevor is the worst of us yes but he's not all of us if I did is still America down to one sound it wouldn't be the braying voice of Donald Trump screaming America first it would be the gorgeous voices of the New York City gay men's chorus singing this song [Applause] that's right that's all star by smashmouth a terrible stupid songs being sung absolutely beautifully this should be our new national anthem and so please world [Applause] [Music] embarrassment the country to incredible dinosaur costumes [Applause]

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 17,959,626

Keywords: john oliver trump, john oliver the world, foreign policy

Id: QCjk_NPsIqU

Length: 19min 15sec (1155 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/TheBestJulien]

I'm Belgian and I'm offended

EDIT: I'm not really offended, I'm actually glad someone even acknowledges we exist

[u/Marali87]

The US ambassador in the Netherlands story is actually far weirder than they show here. It's been all over the news already, but in case you missed it, try to warch this, and note the journalist's baffled look into the camera xD It's funny but also, it is not.

[u/scubadoobidoo]

Non geographic blocked version : https://youtu.be/QAp7tTONXok

[u/obidie]

Foreign Affairs is like sex. If you’re going to announce that you’re always going to come first, you’re going to have problems finding partners.

This is a brilliant line. The writer who came up with it deserves to take a bow.

[u/CatheterC0wb0y]

So that’s what Putin looks like when he smiles.

[u/Mfkr90]

How the fuck are things still not available in Australia.

Are we that fucking backwater.

[u/Wassercow]

Yeah I'm gonna need a full version of that All Star cover...

[u/btcftw1]

Wait is mountain dew supposed to be honeydew soda?

[u/[deleted]]

That Putin smile...idk if he's genuinely happy, or just deciding which manner of death will "accidentally" befall the guy on stage for bringing this up on state TV.