Stephen Colbert goes to town on Trump and Musk's Tesla ad
With Tesla stocks plunging, owners rushing to sell their vehicles, and protests against Elon Musk's car company growing, it's been a bad time for Tesla and its Trump-supporting CEO. And on Tuesday, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert used his monologue to break it all down.
"Here's the thing. This downturn didn't just start yesterday, because Tesla stock has plummeted 50 percent since December," said Colbert. "And there's a good reason for that. It's a phenomenon economists call 'Everyone Fucking Hates This Guy.'"
On Monday, Trump hit his own social media platform Truth Social to defend "Elon's 'baby'" and claim that people were trying to "illegally and collusively boycott Tesla."
"How do you illegally boycott something?" said Colbert on The Late Show. "Buying things is optional. That's why when you walk into a West Elm they don't lock the door and say, 'You want out? Then buy a fat candle with three wicks in it.'"
But the latest publicity stunt on Tuesday saw the U.S. president and Musk running a Tesla ad at the White House at which the president bought a $90,000 Tesla Model S Plaid — a model Trump marvelled over because "everything is computer."
"Of course all of this was to shore up Elon's fading brand and Trump almost got the name right," said Colbert, before showing a clip of the president declaring, "I love Teslerr."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
36 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump urges Senate GOP to overrule parliamentarian
President Trump urged Senate Republicans on Sunday to overrule the chamber's parliamentarian in order to pass key parts of his sweeping domestic policy bill. In a Sunday post on Truth Social, the president backed a call from Rep. Greg Steube (R-Ohio) and other GOP hardliners to ignore rulings from Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. 'Great Congressman Greg Steube is 100% correct. An unelected Senate Staffer (Parliamentarian), should not be allowed to hurt the Republicans Bill. Wants many fantastic things out. NO! DJT,' Trump wrote. The parliamentarian is the nonpartisan Senate official responsible for determining whether parts of laws meant to be passed through budget reconciliation comply with the rules for that process. Budget reconciliation bills can pass the Senate with simple majorities, thereby averting the filibuster. But those provisions must follow specific instructions passed through a budget resolution and not expand the deficit past the window laid out in the bill. Developing
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Leaked Iran Call Further Shreds Trump's Narrative: Report
Iranian government officials in a phone call said that the U.S. military strikes against its nuclear facilities were not as damaging or extensive as they had expected, further undermining the Trump administration's narrative that they were 'completely and totally obliterated.' The Washington Post first reported the call, citing four people familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter. In the conversation that was meant to be private, Iranian government officials wondered why the strikes did not cause more widespread destruction. The administration in a statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt essentially confirmed the existence of the call but called the paper's reporting 'shameful.' 'It's shameful that The Washington Post is helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks,' Leavitt said. 'The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.' The U.S. military targeted nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan and definitely caused damage, although how much damage is under debate among the intelligence community. The news of the call broke on the same day an interview with Donald Trump aired where the president threatened to jail Democratic lawmakers who he says leaked intelligence information. He also said his administration would demand that journalists who reported on the leaks reveal their sources. 'We can find out [who leaked the intelligence],' Trump said on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. 'If they want to, we can find out easily. You go up and tell the reporter, 'National security, who gave it [to you]?' You have to do that, and I suspect we'll be doing things like that.' Trump in those comments is referring to journalists from CNN and The New York Times. Both outlets reported on a leaked intelligence summary from the Pentagon that concluded the bombings closed off entrances to two facilities but that the structures underneath remained intact. The attacks only set Iran's nuclear program back months, the report said, contradicting the administration's claims that their facilities were completely destroyed. 'It turned out, no, it was obliterated like nobody's ever seen before,' Trump said in the interview that aired Sunday. 'And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time.' More from Rolling Stone Trump Threatens to Force Journalists to Reveal Sources Who Leaked Iran Intel Report Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Will Destroy America's Climate Progress Republicans Keep Making Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Worse Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Democrats accuse GOP of nuking Senate rules to pass Trump megabill
Senate Democrats on Sunday accused Republicans of 'going nuclear' to blow up the Senate rules so they can make President Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent. The heated moment on the Senate floor came as Democrats made several parliamentary inquiries of the Senate's presiding chair to lay the groundwork to challenge Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) use of a 'current policy' budget baseline to score the extension of the 2017 tax cuts as not adding to the deficit. 'This is the nuclear option. It's just hidden behind a whole lot of Washington, D.C., lingo,' Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, declared on the Senate floor. Republicans pushed back on that claim. Graham argued that Democrats have previously used current-policy baselines to score bills. He pointed to former Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad's (D-N.D.) use of a current policy baseline to pass a farm bill. Democrats, however, say that was done on a bipartisan basis and not for something as monumental as extending trillions of dollars' worth of tax breaks. Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) pointed out that President Obama's budget office in 2012 argued that the extension of the expiring Bush tax cuts should be scored as a continuation of current policy and as not adding to the deficit. Democrats say that Congress has never before used a current policy baseline to score tax cuts in budget reconciliation package as not adding to future deficits. They are pushing for the bill to be scored on a 'current law' baseline. Under current law, the 2017 Trump tax cuts would expire at the end of 2025. The Congressional Budget Office scores the extension of Trump tax cuts as adding to the deficit under a current-law baseline. But under a current-policy baseline, which Republicans are using for the bill, the CBO scores the extension of the Trump tax cuts as not exceeding the bill's reconciliation instructions or adding to federal deficits after 2034. If extending the Trump tax cuts is scored as budget neutral, then the bill complies with the Senate's Byrd Rule, which determines what legislation can pass the Senate with a simple-majority vote. If Democrats win the procedural argument, the bill would have to be rewritten and the 2017 Trump tax cuts would have to be offset with huge additional spending cuts to comply with the Senate's Byrd Rule. If Republicans win the procedural argument, then they will be able to make the expiring portions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent — a major policy victory. Wyden, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and other senior Democrats made parliamentarian inquiries on the floor Sunday afternoon to set up a later challenge to the Republican baseline. Merkley asked the presiding chair, who was freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), if the House reconciliation bill used current law as the operative baseline when it was first laid before the Senate. The chair answered 'yes.' Then Schumer asked if the Senate had ever used a baseline other than current law for a reconciliation measure, and the chair responded 'no.' Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, asked if the nine titles of the Senate bill other than the Finance Committee's portion, used current-law baselines. Moreno answered 'Yes.' Wyden then asked if the Finance title of the legislation relied on two different budgetary baselines, both current-law and current-policy baselines, and the chair acknowledged that is true. Those answers prompted Murray, the longest serving Democratic member of the Budget panel, to accuse Republicans of 'ignoring precedent, process and the parliamentarian.'
