On the latest episode of “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver once more voiced his criticism towards President Trump, specifically concerning his handling of the rising demonstrations against immigration raids taking place nationwide.
Over the weekend, ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] carried out extensive raids nationwide at the behest of Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, who allegedly instructed them to arrest undocumented immigrants and focus on places like Home Depots or 7-Eleven stores. The result was chaos from the get-go.”
(Note: “Undoubtedly” was replaced with “Over the weekend”, “escalation ordered by” was replaced with “carried out at the behest of”, “Miller reportedly told ICE officials to just go out there and arrest illegal aliens” was replaced with “allegedly instructed them to arrest undocumented immigrants”, and “So that’s what happened, and from the start, it was a mess” was replaced with “The result was chaos from the get-go.”)
Oliver demonstrated a news broadcast displaying clips of individuals being apprehended by Homeland Security in Los Angeles. A man who appeared on camera stated, “My companions began shouting ‘ICE, ICE, ICE.’ Initially, I believed he was jesting, but it turned out he wasn’t. Then I noticed the day laborers starting to flee.
Oliver remarked: “That’s terrible. Hearing someone shout ‘ICE’ rarely has a positive connotation. At best, you might have somehow traveled back in time to 2014 and been challenged to do the ice bucket challenge. Incidentally, that was something [Trump] did, as he was nominated by, believe it or not, Mike Tyson, Vince McMahon, and Homer Simpson. It was a more straightforward era,” he joked.
Later on, Oliver brought up the intensifying demonstrations happening in Los Angeles, leading Trump to dispatch approximately 10,000 National Guard soldiers and several hundred Marines, allegedly to safeguard federal law enforcement personnel from assaults by a brutal and aggressive group, according to Trump’s words.
Trump further commented, “Some on the extreme left disapprove, but I say, if we hadn’t acted, Los Angeles would be ablaze right now, just as it was during the destructive wildfires several months ago in places like Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
Oliver remarked, “I understand I’m not offering fresh insights at the moment, but his behavior is really insensitive. It’s akin to joking about the impending milestones at a retirement party with, ‘The only event left after this is death.’ Everyone is aware of that and we’re all making an effort to avoid such thoughts.
Later on, Oliver pointed out that Trump’s action drew criticism from California Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, as well as several other officials.
Oliver inquired, ‘What’s the point of deploying troops if they won’t have any tasks?’ He humorously suggested, ‘You’ll just end up with 4,000 soldiers aimlessly roaming Los Angeles, pausing occasionally at the Hollywood Walk of Fame to remark, “Christian Slater. Interesting.”‘” (It should be noted that Christian Slater was recently honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.)
Later, Oliver admitted to instances of “random damage, stone-throwing incidents, and some Waymo vehicles being torched.
He went on to explain, “However, those incidents were not typical of the protest as a whole. I’m not downplaying their impact, but let me clarify: setting a driverless car on fire is not equivalent to physically harming someone, unless we inhabit a world similar to the one in Pixar’s ‘Cars,’ where such an act could be considered a grave crime and lead to eternal punishment, as if there were a car pope in charge, a character from ‘Cars 2.’ This implies the existence of car Catholicism, car deities, and possibly a prolonged cover-up of auto-related scandals.”
Oliver expressed his viewpoint, stating that Trump’s handling of the protests seemed excessively dramatic, more so considering troops would supposedly be deployed for approximately two months, amounting to around $134 million in taxpayer funds. He added humorously, “Normally, when such a large sum is wasted on something utterly meaningless, we at least get to see an Avenger or two in it.
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2025-06-16 07:24