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00:01President Trump delivering his State of the Union address.
00:04All this as his overall approval rating sits at just 39% right now.
00:09Heading into the State of the Union.
00:10Donald Trump in America is unpopular.
00:13There's a lot of reasons why Donald Trump is unpopular.
00:16Broadly unpopular.
00:17This is a really do-or-die moment for President Trump.
00:21He has never been this unpopular.
00:28Unpopular.
00:29You're deeply unpopular.
00:32Dictators make you small.
00:34So does this pedophile.
00:36You send ice to the heartland.
00:38You tweet racist memes and make children scream.
00:41With your hideous corpse-like hand.
00:44Unpopular.
00:46Historically unpopular.
00:48You trashed Bad Bunny and the economy.
00:52And tore the East Wing down.
00:54So let's start turning your phone numbers around.
01:00These people are crazy.
01:02Never mind.
01:03It's the Late Show.
01:06Live with Stephen Colbert.
01:09Tonight.
01:10Stayed up late.
01:12Plus.
01:12Stephen welcomes.
01:14Live.
01:15John Dickerson.
01:17And musical guest.
01:19Vitsky.
01:20Featuring.
01:21Live.
01:21Louis Kato.
01:22And the great big joy machine.
01:25And now.
01:26Live from the Ed Sullivan Theater.
01:28In New York City.
01:30It's Stephen Colbert.
01:38Yeah.
01:39Right there.
01:41Hello, Stephen Colbert.
01:42Notine!
01:42Have a second live.
01:43You sound theendeu light.
01:44I hope you're live.
01:47So nice.
01:48You sound the hell with me.
01:51Come on in aixà lan air.
01:52Whoo!
01:53Have a moment live.
01:54Have a moment live.
01:55Have a moment.
01:57Have a moment.
01:57Have a moment, come on in audio.
01:57We'll keep an eye.
01:58Have a moment.
01:59Let's keep it live.
02:00Keep it alive, as well my friends.
02:03Thank you friends.
02:07Thank you very much.
02:09Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, down here, up there.
02:25Welcome.
02:26Welcome, my friend.
02:27Hello.
02:28Hello, Marcus.
02:29Please sit down.
02:30We got to go.
02:32You're live, baby.
02:33You're live.
02:34Sit, sit.
02:37Woo!
02:38Welcome.
02:40Oh, you feel the electricity in this room.
02:43Welcome to the show, everybody.
02:46Welcome to the Late Show, my friends.
02:47In here and out there, I'm your host, Stephen Colbert.
02:50Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see from the official bug,
02:54we are live right there following the State of the Union.
02:58I didn't know what to expect.
02:59These are always kind of rough with Trump.
03:02So just to smooth things out, right before the speech, I dropped an edible and strapped in.
03:09Just like just following Michelle Obama's advice, when they go low, we get high.
03:15Now, I'm joking.
03:17Obviously, I'm joking.
03:20It was incredibly long.
03:22In fact, tonight, Trump broke the record for the longest State of the Union address in history.
03:28Yeah.
03:30It went on so long that this was Senator John Ossoff at the beginning, and this is him after.
03:38Still kind of hot, though.
03:39Still kind of sexy.
03:40According to...
03:43I can appreciate.
03:45According to Trump's team, the official theme of the speech was,
03:50America at 250, strong, prosperous, and respected.
03:54Though, if you have to say you're strong, prosperous, and respected, it kind of feels like you're not.
03:59It's like getting an invite to,
04:01Sheila's 50, single, happy, and absolutely loving menopause.
04:05Is it hot in here?
04:05It's hot in here.
04:06Let's punch a wall.
04:08Now, it might seem like having an official theme is kind of weird,
04:12but it turns out it's not the first.
04:14Remember, the first one, back in 94, was Clinton's.
04:17His theme was, I like big butts and I cannot lie.
04:22Turns out one of those was true.
04:23This speech...
04:25This speech was an important opportunity for Trump tonight,
04:28because right now, his popularity is un.
04:31According to a recent CNN poll,
04:34his job approval rating among all adults is at 36%.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Yeah.
04:40I think...
04:41I think...
04:42I think his fan is here, that one person up there.
04:4536 still seems kind of high, though.
04:47I find it hard to believe Trump is more popular
04:49than the straight-to-VHS Aladdin sequel Return of Jafar.
04:54I mean, that was the number-one movie among kids puking at home in 1994.
05:01One of the big stories tonight is, who wasn't there?
05:05Roughly 50 Democratic members of the House and Senate
05:07planned to forego the speech.
05:11I wish we were one.
05:12I know, right?
05:13The folks who skipped included Senators Chris Murphy,
05:17Ed Markey, and Jeff Merkley,
05:19as well as Merk Manley, Mandy Merkin,
05:22Morkin Mindy, Marky Markin, Meghan Markle,
05:25who was sitting Shiva for the late Billy Gidley.
05:29For Democrats who did attend,
05:32House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged his members in the chamber
05:35to not make a scene,
05:37an approach he dubbed silent defiance,
05:40which I believe is a bold rebrand of doing jack squat.
05:45As Martin Luther King once said,
05:47Shh.
05:51Eventually, there's a lot of people coming,
05:52the cabinet comes in, the families come in,
05:54all that kind of stuff.
05:55Eventually, the president entered,
05:57looking a little tired, but his hair was nice and fluffy.
06:01Personally, I think he could have kept his head
06:03in the cotton candy machine a little bit longer.
06:06The president started off with kind of a weird brag.
06:08Our enemies are scared.
06:10Our military and police are stacked.
06:13Our police are stacked.
06:15Our EMTs have asses that won't quit.
06:18And our firefighters are so hot,
06:21the Poles are begging them just to slide down.
06:26Grease me up.
06:27The Trump...
06:27Trump honored the gold-winning men's U.S. hockey teams,
06:31a great bunch of young guys,
06:32and made a special announcement
06:33about their goalie, Conor Hellebuyuk.
06:36I will soon be presenting Conor
06:39with our highest civilian honor,
06:41which we will be given
06:42and which has been given to many athletes over the years.
06:46It's called
06:47the highest civilian honor in our country.
06:53It's the FIFA hockey prize for ice piece.
06:57I'm guessing, because they're not scrolling to my prompter here for some reason.
07:02One team of gold medal winners wasn't there
07:05because the U.S. women's hockey team
07:06declined Trump's invite to the Sierra Leone.
07:10Yeah.
07:14No show.
07:16No show.
07:18Or as they say in hockey,
07:20puck no.
07:22The women actually got a better offer
07:23because this is true,
07:24hip-hop legend Flavor Flav
07:26invited the team
07:28to party
07:30in Vegas.
07:31That is so nice,
07:32and it's really no surprise.
07:33Flav has long supported women's sports,
07:35even though he is most famous for supporting Flav.
07:38Who is that again?
07:40Boy.
07:46Ask your parents.
07:47Then Trump went ahead
07:50and took credit for some stuff
07:51he had nothing to do with.
07:52I'm also pleased to say
07:54that the next time the Olympic torch is lit,
07:56it will be here in America
07:59for the 2028 Olympics.
08:03We got the 2026 FIFA World Cup,
08:06so we have the World Cup
08:08and the Olympics coming,
08:09and that is exciting news.
08:11Is he just doing
08:12this year's community calendar
08:13for all of America?
08:15Let's see.
08:16What else do we have?
08:17We have the FIFA World Cup.
08:18There's also FIFA Pottery Class
08:20down at the Kilmar Club.
08:21Compain plates is a great first date,
08:23and then on March 20th,
08:25come on down to the New Rose Garden
08:26for a four-meat chili cook-off
08:28featuring a secret fifth-meat man.
08:33Trump then bragged about
08:34the new Trump accounts for kids,
08:37but insisted he did not pick that name.
08:40And I didn't name it.
08:41I didn't name it.
08:43I did not name that.
08:50Nobody believes me,
08:51but I did not name it.
08:52It was named by a very tall man.
08:54Yes, it was named by a very tall man.
08:57There he is, standing in the corner.
08:59He wears a long black robe,
09:00holds a scythe,
09:03giant hourglass in one hand,
09:04and when he appears,
09:05your tongue tastes like ash,
09:07and whenever you blink,
09:08he's a little bit closer.
09:10Thank you, tall man.
09:12Ben, despite...
09:13Are you my son-in-law?
09:15Is this my son-in-law?
09:19Ben, despite the high prices
09:21we all see at the grocery store,
09:22Trump bragged that he had lowered some prices.
09:25The cost of chicken, butter, fruit.
09:27Oh.
09:30That's my favorite,
09:31but I'm trying to be healthy,
09:33so I stick to,
09:34I can't believe it's not chicken, butter, fruits.
09:39He, uh,
09:41he fooded some more.
09:42Even beef,
09:43which was very high,
09:45is starting to come down significantly.
09:47We're getting it down,
09:48and soon you will see numbers
09:51that few people would think were possible.
09:54Nobody can believe
09:55when they see the kind of numbers.
09:56Yes, no one can believe
09:58the numbers.
09:59I'm talking Threvin.
10:03A hundred and florp.
10:07Threppledy double.
10:10Then Trump took a moment,
10:12uh, to sell drugs.
10:13I'm also ending
10:14the wildly inflated cost
10:16of prescription drugs
10:19like has never happened before.
10:20Other presidents tried to do it,
10:23but they never could.
10:24They tried.
10:26Most didn't try, actually.
10:28But they tried.
10:29I tried to understand what he said.
10:32I tried,
10:33but I couldn't.
10:34I tried,
10:35but actually,
10:36I didn't try,
10:37but I tried.
10:39He also made
10:40this refreshing admission.
10:41I took prescription drugs.
10:44Clearly not enough.
10:50Thank you, bro.
10:51We can all go home now.
10:56Throughout his speech tonight,
10:58Trump showed remarkable flexibility
10:59for a man his age
11:01to toot his own horn.
11:03In one year,
11:04we have lifted
11:042.4 million Americans,
11:08a record off of food stamps.
11:10Yes, he lifted
11:112.4 million people
11:13off of food stamps
11:15in that he kicked
11:152.4 million people
11:17off of food stamps.
11:19So they're off of food,
11:21and now they're just eating stamps.
11:23Delicious flavors like
11:24blueberry,
11:25strawberry,
11:26and Bruce Lee.
11:29Now, if you've heard
11:30any Trump speech before,
11:31you'll notice
11:32there really wasn't
11:33much new material here.
11:35But then,
11:35in the middle of the speech,
11:36and this is true,
11:37the New York Times
11:37dropped a devastating
11:39actual headline,
11:40Mr. Clean
11:41is retiring.
11:44Yet another powerful man
11:46brought down
11:46by the Epstein files.
11:55Guess I'll have to move
11:56my celebrity crush
11:57to the Green Giant.
12:00He honored many
12:01service members
12:02up in the gallery,
12:03as well he should.
12:04He awarded purple hearts
12:05and even congressional
12:06medals of honor,
12:07one to a 100-year-old man.
12:10Democrats stood up
12:11to applaud all these heroes,
12:13because there are some moments
12:14that even Trump can't ruin.
12:16I've always wanted
12:17the Congressional Medal of Honor,
12:19but I was informed
12:20I'm not allowed
12:20to give it to myself.
12:21Oh, my mistake.
12:24So close.
12:26Honoring our veterans
12:27and first responders aside,
12:30it was a dark speech
12:31filled with divisive lies,
12:33and it's unlikely
12:34to win him much support
12:35with the voters
12:36who have grown disenchanted
12:38with the chaos and dysfunction
12:39of his second administration.
12:40But his was not
12:41the only speech tonight.
12:42The Democrats had
12:43several rallies
12:44across Washington,
12:46including one
12:46at the National Press Club.
12:47Let's check in
12:48with what the Democrats
12:49had to offer.
12:50The Portland Frog Brigade!
12:55Whoa.
12:58That edible was stronger
12:59than I thought.
13:01We've got a great
13:02live show for you tonight.
13:04My guest is John Dickerson,
13:07but when we come back
13:08and meanwhile,
13:10you'll join us,
13:11won't you?
13:35We're back here today.
13:37We're back.
13:37and we're back.
13:37We're back to YouaceyHN,
13:39right over there! Woo! That's right! That's right!
13:44Cleansing. I must say, the joy machine is cleansing this evening.
13:47Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right.
13:49Coming up. Coming up in just a moment, my friends,
13:52the finest, clearest political analyst I know,
13:55and a true gentleman, Mr. John Dickerson,
13:57will be joining us in just a moment over there
13:59to lay it all out. He's just gonna lay it all out for us.
14:02Now, folks, if you watch this show,
14:05and we don't always do live shows,
14:07but we love the energy when we do.
14:09I just want you to know that I know that you know
14:12that I spend most of my time right over there
14:13in the news cocina.
14:15Slow-brazing prime cachete for ten hours,
14:18then serving on a flour tortilla
14:19with salsa de chile arbol
14:21to make for you the beef-cheek barbacoa norteña
14:25that is my monologue.
14:26But sometimes, while trying to break into
14:27an illegal gerbil fighting parlor
14:30to steal back my money,
14:31I get stuck in a septic trench
14:34where I heat the remains of what is likely
14:35a defeated hamster over a discarded lighter
14:37and scrape it into a half-eaten hot dog bun
14:40to munch on the sewer chalupa of news
14:42that is my segment.
14:45Meanwhile!
14:48There you go.
14:49A live meanwhile.
14:51That's all America needs to deal.
14:57Meanwhile...
14:58In food news, researchers say that eating 30 plants a week
15:03can transform your gut health.
15:05What?
15:06I can't name 30 plants.
15:09Carrot?
15:11Lettuce?
15:13The Twix one?
15:15I'm out.
15:17Meanwhile...
15:18A man with three penises may have gone his whole life
15:21without knowing about the extra two.
15:24The discovery was made by researchers at Johnson & Johnson & Johnson.
15:30Apparently...
15:31There you go.
15:32There you go.
15:33A nation healed.
15:37Apparently, the penises three were discovered
15:40while scientists in England were examining a cadaver.
15:44In other words, English scientists spotted dick.
15:51Oh, wow.
16:01As to how this all went undetected for so schlong,
16:05scientists believe the extra two were concealed
16:09within the scrotal sack.
16:11Just like the old saying,
16:12Is that a penis in your penis, or are you just happy to penis?
16:20Meanwhile...
16:21A giraffe and ostrich were caught in an intense staring battle
16:24in footage shared by the Memphis Zoo.
16:27There they are.
16:27I would love to know what is going on
16:29in those two pecan-sized brains right now.
16:32That looks like an existential crisis to me.
16:35Wait.
16:36Am I a messed-up you?
16:39Or are you a messed-up me?
16:42Meanwhile...
16:43Scientists have discovered that horses can whistle
16:46and sing at the same time
16:47by vibrating their vocal folds
16:49while generating a high-pitched sound
16:52by whistling through their larynx.
16:54And I'm...
16:54Is this true?
16:55I'm told we have obtained the research footage
16:57of a horse singing while whistling.
17:00Camp town ladies sing this song,
17:02doo-dah, doo-dah.
17:04Camp town racetracks five miles long,
17:06oh, doo-dah day.
17:20Meanwhile...
17:22I wasn't sure how the horse would play, I'll admit.
17:26But it's a live show.
17:27If it wasn't live, maybe we'd edit that out.
17:31Meanwhile...
17:31This is how the sausage is made.
17:33Meanwhile...
17:34In a new customer service strategy,
17:37angry Burger King customers
17:38can now call their president directly to complain.
17:41Wait...
17:42A Burger King and a Burger President?
17:45This is a weird way to find out
17:47that Burger King is a parliamentary republic.
17:51Meanwhile...
17:52In New York City...
17:53Here...
17:54The hottest new way for singles to meet
17:56is wrestling speed dating.
18:00In one corner, we have Delia,
18:03who enjoys SoulCycle and baking sourdough.
18:07And in the other, we have Paolo,
18:09who has a fear of commitment.
18:12Let's get ready to go on three dates,
18:14then say work is getting really busy!
18:21For the West Coast, let's, uh...
18:28Meanwhile...
18:28An Illinois judge recently ruled
18:31that the boneless wings of Buffalo Wild Wings
18:33could indeed be called wings.
18:35Yes!
18:36Justice is served!
18:37With a side of blue cheese and two pieces of celery
18:40that you might eat.
18:42Specifically, the judge ruled that the B-dubs
18:45can call them boneless wings
18:47even though they're essentially chicken nuggets.
18:50I'm sorry, essentially chicken nuggets?
18:53Is sparkling wine essentially champagne?
18:56Is wool essentially cashmere?
18:59Is Dylan McDermott essentially Dermott Mulroney?
19:04Nobody knows.
19:06The judge said that the plaintiff
19:08does not plausibly allege
19:09that reasonable consumers
19:10are fooled by Buffalo Wild Wings'
19:12use of the term boneless wings.
19:13Okay, there's the flaw right there.
19:15No reasonable person has ever eaten
19:17at Buffalo Wild Wings.
19:20We're talking about a place
19:21where you can buy wings by the bundle.
19:24which of course comes with bone-in wings,
19:27boneless wings,
19:28home,
19:28and auto.
19:30We'll be right back with John Dickerson.
19:34Oh!
19:54Two times!
19:55Two times!
19:56Hey!
19:57Welcome back to the live show, everybody.
20:00Ladies and gentlemen, my guest tonight is a brilliant journalist.
20:04He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and co-host of Slate Political Gab Fest.
20:09He also makes a mean cocktail.
20:10Please welcome back to The Late Show, John Dickerson.
20:28Good to see you.
20:30Always nice to talk to you.
20:32This is, how many times have you been on the show?
20:34Do you know how many this is?
20:3621.
20:3721.
20:3821.
20:38You are number two.
20:40You are between John Oliver at 22 and Bernie at 20.
20:45Yeah.
20:45That's quite a sandwich.
20:46It is.
20:48It is.
20:50Stacked high.
20:51Yeah.
20:51Well, thank you very much.
20:52Pleasure.
20:53Now, okay, so you watched it.
20:56I assume you watched the speech tonight.
20:58I did.
20:58I thought we were going to have to have breakfast.
21:00Exactly.
21:01Before we get into the specifics of what we saw tonight, speech is constitutionally mandated.
21:06This is in the Constitution.
21:08What was it intended to be by the framers?
21:11Well, it was intended to be a report from the president who had the view of the whole
21:14country because the members of Congress only had limited views of their state or their
21:18district.
21:19Politics really was local for them.
21:21Very local.
21:21And what is so important about that is it embeds in the ceremony the separation of powers.
21:27Because they built this system where Congress would have some powers and the president would
21:31have powers.
21:31And so the president is called to deliver.
21:33He's invited by the speaker.
21:34Called by Congress.
21:36Yes.
21:36To come deliver this set of data, really.
21:39Washington, at the end of his inaugural, excuse me, his State of the Union, says, I'm going
21:43to give you some charts and some figures because, you know, it was basically a report of information.
21:48And Washington gave a lot of suggestions, but he acted almost like a referee.
21:53He was not a participant, really.
21:55It was things that Congress was going to do.
21:57Of course, tonight we saw something quite different where Donald Trump was the suggestor
22:01and doer of all things in American government.
22:03Right.
22:03In fact, specifically about the separation of powers, he actually slapped down two of the
22:08other powers in one part of his speech.
22:10He said to the Supreme Court, you made the wrong decision about the tariffs.
22:14Yes.
22:14I'm going to make tariff decisions on my own going forward, regardless of what you've said
22:19tonight.
22:20And I'm not going to ask Congress to do anything about it because I don't need them, which is
22:24what you said I needed to do.
22:26Exactly.
22:26And Congress stood on their feet.
22:28The Republicans stood on their feet and applauded and said, take away our power.
22:31Exactly.
22:32We suck.
22:33Yes.
22:34There's.
22:36Yeah.
22:36Yes.
22:37Yeah.
22:42So the idea of separation of powers can get pretty abstract, but the reason they designed
22:47it the way they did and the reason Washington goes in his State of the Union and says, these
22:50are just my suggestions is they felt if the powers weren't evenly split and it was sort
22:55of, they talked about it like a pocket watch where the gears meshed and they would have
22:59some tension that was necessary, but they had to work in concert also, or if one got too
23:05big, it ground down the others and the thing didn't work.
23:08So when it gets out of balance, when there's a president who accretes all power to himself
23:12and the other branch, which the founders thought would be so angry that anybody took a drop
23:17of their power, instead stands up and says, yes, sir, may I have another?
23:20They counted on the ambition of those men to not allow their power to be taken away.
23:25Ambition fights ambition.
23:26Exactly.
23:26That's the gears working together.
23:28But when one side decides to lose its ambition or hook its ambition to the success of the person
23:33in the executive branch, those gears fall out of balance.
23:36And what falls out of balance is all the lawmaking that goes, that deals with healthcare, immigration,
23:42national security, anything.
23:44The machine of government doesn't work and liberty is trampled on.
23:47That was the founders fear.
23:49What stood out to you tonight about like the, the, the meaning of tonight's speech?
23:53He said, our nation is back.
23:54Did he make that case?
23:55The case he had to make, he made a case to Republicans.
23:58There was some theatricality that was pure Donald Trump and that his base will love.
24:02And that matters in an off year election, a non-presidential election.
24:05So his base will be thrilled by a lot of the things that happened when he called the Democrats
24:09sick and crazy.
24:10Yes.
24:11That's great.
24:11Okay.
24:11That's not his problem though.
24:13His problem is that the country thinks the thing that he was elected to do.
24:15And when I say the country, the majority in polls show that people think the thing he
24:19was elected to do, which was to lower prices and deal with the economy.
24:22He's not doing a good job.
24:23Majority says he, they disapprove of the job he's doing on the economy.
24:27They think he's not handling prices.
24:28And the thing that he's doing is major economic initiative tariffs.
24:31They don't like.
24:33So his job in the speech was to address that.
24:35And what he essentially did was say, we're winning.
24:38He said, the thing that you feel, no, you don't, is what he said to the viewers.
24:42Exactly.
24:43It's the toughest thing to do in politics, which is to say, you're not feeling what you're
24:47feeling.
24:47Which is what kind of sunk Joe Biden, his economic message.
24:50He says, it's going great.
24:52It's sunk everyone who has tried to do this.
24:54And Trump just straight up, he was three minutes in and he had lied about growth.
24:58He had lied about inflation.
25:01Then later, he lied about who pays tariffs.
25:03It's not foreign countries.
25:05It's Americans and American companies.
25:07And then he said he was going to get rid of the income tax, which you can't do through
25:11tariffs.
25:12But by the way, if you were going to do it, you'd be taxing people through their purchases
25:15to replace the income tax.
25:17So it doesn't make any sense anyway.
25:19We heard Trump lay out a potential rationale for military action in Iran, though really not
25:24very much.
25:25He didn't necessarily why the carrier groups were there.
25:28He didn't say what the goal of bombing them necessarily would be or what the exit strategy
25:33would be, what victory would look like.
25:35No, although it was striking.
25:36Sorry, before we get to Iran, he didn't mention Ukraine almost.
25:38He mentioned Ukraine in passing.
25:40Two sentences, I think.
25:41It's the four year anniversary of the invasion by Russia.
25:43Today?
25:44I believe so.
25:45Yes.
25:46Wow.
25:46Yeah, yeah.
25:47Didn't mention it at all.
25:49Anyway, that's, I mean, that just gives you a sense of how things have shifted.
25:54When you talk about American greatness, many people believe America's greatness is determined
25:58by its willingness to stand up for democracies and people fighting for their freedom against
26:02invading armies, specifically invading armies from Russia.
26:06What's the job of a political opposition on nights like this, of the ones who decided
26:10to attend?
26:11Not make an error, not look, not, the president is in a tough political position.
26:17His party's in a tough political position.
26:19If you're a Democrat, you just want to stay out of the way.
26:21I mean, the president's approval rating is in the high 30s, low 40s.
26:26Presidential parties lose in off year elections.
26:29I mean, Democrats just got to stay out of the way.
26:30At least they didn't bring those paddles that they had last time.
26:34Right.
26:34Right.
26:34There's no chance that, you know, that they're not going to do that.
26:38And like 50 of them didn't.
26:39Didn't show.
26:39And don't you wish you were one of them?
26:42They're probably, they're probably glad that they didn't go.
26:44But the, the, the, the opposition party does their work in the days out after the speech
26:48when they can define the speech.
26:50Uh, not, they can't compete with a president who's in the, who's, uh, got the theatricality
26:55that the president, you know, used quite well, particularly with respect to America's heroes
26:59that he highlighted.
27:00We have to take a quick break.
27:02We're right back with more John Dickerson, everybody.
27:04Stick around.
27:22Hey, everybody, welcome back.
27:23We're here with, uh, our friend John Dickerson.
27:27Uh, welcome back.
27:28You know, this is our 61st live show.
27:30Thank you so much for being here for our final and 61st show.
27:34It's a good number to end on.
27:35I'm honored.
27:35Sure.
27:36Crime, I think.
27:37Yeah.
27:37Okay, so tonight, getting back to the speech tonight, um, uh, it was, uh, it was kind of
27:42dark.
27:42Aside from the parts of the speech where he honored first responders and veterans as, as
27:47well he should, he could have just sort of yelled and said, like, oh, the Dow's at 50,000
27:51and then poured a bucket of blood on Hakeem Jeffries and walked out.
27:54It would have had the same effect.
27:56One of the dramatic moments tonight, I thought, was the, uh, there was a split screen between
28:00Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts, uh, when he was talking about the tariffs.
28:06Um, he was front and center there when Trump was talking about having his tariff policy gutted.
28:12And you say a central question of the Trump presidency has been, can he do that?
28:17Whatever it is.
28:18Yeah.
28:18And, and, and Roberts and, and company said no, but Roberts, he had said essentially
28:22Roberts and the majority were traitors, but last Friday.
28:26Under foreign, like, yeah, foreign influence.
28:28Foreign cabal was influenced, but that they were disloyal to their country.
28:31Right.
28:32I mean, previous presidents have grumbled about the Supreme Court, uh, FDR called them nine
28:36old men, but this is going a, a far distance from that.
28:40And that gets back again to that idea of separation of powers is the president saying, I shall not
28:45be questioned even by the Supreme Court.
28:46And if he believes that and you run a government that way, it's going to, it falls apart.
28:50Okay.
28:51So in this case, if I can just get to the tariff thing for a second here, why in this
28:54case
28:54did this court say, you know, he can't do that?
28:57They said he can't do it for a couple of reasons.
28:59One, the legislation that he picked didn't have the word tariff in it.
29:02And so they basically said, no, none of the eight previous presidents have used this legislation
29:08for this reason.
29:09And when Congress, oh, and by the way, the power to tariff, which is the power to tax
29:13is in the constitution.
29:15So it's not a, it's not a fuzzy thing.
29:17And when Congress has abrogated that power to a president, they've been super, super
29:20clear about it.
29:21Then they also said, you know, you've claimed it's an emergency because of national security,
29:26but you've also claimed that it's going to, it's going to be used as a negotiating tool.
29:30It's going to get rid of the deficit.
29:31It's going to reshore manufacturing.
29:33And you're going to use it because you're mad at Canada for running an ad with Ronald Reagan
29:37in it.
29:38Exactly.
29:38It's going to cure the heartbreak of psoriasis.
29:41They've said it's going to, it's going to do all these things.
29:44And what the court said is you can't say that you pulled the gun because it's an emergency
29:48and then use the gun to stir your soup.
29:50You, you, you have to actually use it for the emergency.
29:53And so, and, and, but here's the thing about the, the, um, the guy who wasn't there was
29:59Neil Gorsuch, Justice Gorsuch, who was put on the court by the president.
30:03And what you find in Gorsuch, who voted with the majority on this, what you find in his
30:07decision though, and the reason that he probably was good, he wasn't there, is he explains
30:11sort of in this very patient way, how the constitution works.
30:13And he says, I know people who support the tariffs are unhappy, but the Congress is there
30:18because it's closest to the people.
30:20I mean, he did everything but put a link to the schoolhouse rock in there.
30:24So, but, but, but this judge, judge-splaining is important because, so when these, when
30:36these tariffs were first put on, I called people who have small businesses and medium-sized
30:40businesses and said, well, what's this doing to you?
30:42And I talked to a woman who, who, like, held up the UPS, uh, bill, 2,000 more dollars to
30:48pay for tariffs.
30:48It was, it was hurting her.
30:50Um, mid, mid-sized company, people got to work three days a week, not five, because they
30:54can't afford to pay them.
30:56Those people can go hold up that UPS to their, that, that, that screen with the tax bill
31:00to their congressman at the grocery store.
31:02And the congressman maybe had a small business in their town too.
31:05The transmission lines of democracy work that way.
31:08You can speak to your congressman, a president or a billionaire treasury secretary, they are
31:13a long way from the kitchen table.
31:15And the, the founder said, we want it to be close.
31:17And that's what Gorsuch was saying.
31:19And that's the transmission line that's in danger with tariffs, but also in any instance,
31:23when you have this separation of power system, when it gets out of whack.
31:28Well, you said, um, when you were on the show, uh, uh, last year, you, you talked about
31:34Jefferson believing the chains of the constitution bind a man down from mischief.
31:39How did the founders account for someone like Trump?
31:43Cause they, they did and they didn't.
31:45They did for sure.
31:46They thought not all men will be virtuous and we have to create a government that, that,
31:49that constrains them.
31:50But with the president, when they put the presidency together, George Washington was at the front
31:54of the room and they thought basically our presidents are going to be like him.
31:57They'll have virtue and their virtue plus the combat with the other, other, um, branches
32:02that will constrain presidents from going overboard.
32:06We're going to take another break here.
32:08We're right back with more.
32:09Mr. John Dickerson, everybody.
32:10Sit around.
32:25There you go.
32:26Hey everybody.
32:28We're back with John Dickerson.
32:31Okay.
32:31So we were, we were talking about, uh, the tariffs, uh, for the break.
32:35Um, one thing I didn't get to, I want to hit on quickly is that, so this is 175, 176,
32:41maybe 200 billion, who knows how much money had been collected by the federal government.
32:44And as you pointed out before, he might say like other countries will pay for that.
32:48He said that tonight in the speech.
32:49He lied about that in the speech tonight.
32:51He also called voting a privilege by the way, which really upset me because it's not the 1965
32:56voting privilege act.
32:58It's the voting rights act.
33:00But getting back to the tariffs, there's all this money.
33:05There's, you know, let's, let's call it around, let's call it around $175 billion.
33:09Some Democrats are saying, hey, you've got to give that back to the American people.
33:13We paid that.
33:14Donald Trump stole your money and now he won't give it back.
33:19Well, that's, yes, that's what they're saying.
33:20Yes, they're trying to connect the affordability issue, which they have been very successful
33:26talking about what things cost.
33:28Corporations are suing.
33:29They're suing the administration.
33:30The administration in some quarters has said they will give the money back, which puts them
33:33in a pickle.
33:34The tax foundation has said that the average American has paid $1,000 more because of the
33:39tariffs.
33:39So you can imagine that the Democrats will say, as you were saying, you know, he stole
33:43your money, you know, and like his, you know, like the contractors who used to work for him,
33:49he stiffed you and owes you your money.
33:51Governor Pritzker is suing on behalf of the residents of Illinois for $1,700 apiece.
33:55And they will, they will continue saying that.
33:59And then, and, and he also said tonight that to continue the tariffs, Republicans won't have
34:03to take a vote in Congress.
34:04I'm not so sure, sure that's certain, but you can imagine that's not a vote those Republicans
34:08want to take.
34:09This year, as the president said tonight, we're celebrating 250 years of America since
34:15the declaration, sort of the founding poetry of our country, not the constitution.
34:21And I'm old enough.
34:22You're old enough to remember 70, the 200th, the bicentennial in 76.
34:26Eight years old.
34:27What did you do?
34:28What did I do?
34:29Oh, I glued a lot of red, white, and blue cardboard together, I think, at school.
34:34Oh, Up With People came to my school and sang, 200 years and just a baby.
34:40I remember that.
34:42So, Nancy Dickerson, God love her, my mother, redecorated my room.
34:47I had blue shag carpet.
34:49I had a desk and a bookshelf that was fire engine red.
34:53Sure.
34:53The drapes were red, white, and blue striped.
34:56Sure.
34:56And then the bedspread on the twin beds.
34:59Is that what this is here for?
35:00That's what that is.
35:01I was wondering what this was.
35:03Yeah, go ahead.
35:03Explain.
35:04Is a celebration of America at 1776, and those are all the states, and when they were admitted
35:10to the union.
35:12And we wonder why you're like this.
35:17Yes.
35:19That's beautiful.
35:19Do you still have this?
35:20No, I don't, because, well, it's a longer story.
35:23You read the book.
35:24Well, as someone who, you know, who reports on history, you write about history, with an
35:30eye to the last 250 years, what moments of American history are most on your mind right
35:37now?
35:37And what is admittedly, I think everyone would say, even if you're in favor of the
35:40president, is a troubled moment in our history.
35:43I'm really influenced by John Meacham's new book, American Struggle, which I interviewed
35:47him about in the beginning.
35:48Me too, John.
35:49I interviewed him about it, too.
35:50Yes.
35:51Well, you interview everybody.
35:53I just have to go do little tiny things on a CCTV somewhere.
35:59In that, he starts with Frederick Douglass in the wake of the Dred Scott decision, in
36:03which the Supreme Court said that enslaved people were not citizens and that the Congress
36:08couldn't stop slavery.
36:09And then, in the face of all of that, Douglass said, who was very angry about the way this
36:14country had been founded, said, nevertheless, that the Constitution and the Declaration were
36:18glorious liberty documents.
36:19That he could have hope in the country in the wake of that decision, based on the words in
36:23that document, which were written by slaveholders, and yet he could see through that and still
36:27have hope in those words in this country.
36:29That is some durable, nourishing hope from the past for our present.
36:34All right.
36:35I'll take a hit of hope right now.
36:37Thank you, John.
36:39For more great insight, check him out on his substack.
36:43He's at John F. Dickerson.
36:46John Dickerson, everybody.
36:47We'll be right back with a performance by Pipski.
37:04Her album, Nothing's About to Happen to Me, comes out Friday, performing I'll Change
37:09for you, ladies and gentlemen, Mitski.
37:22How do I let our love die when you're the only other keeper of my most precious memory?
37:47I've been drinking.
37:53Why is that God of me?
37:58I can't call you about you and me.
38:03Cause I won't do anything for you to love me again
38:20If you don't like me now
38:28I will change for you
38:43Bars
38:47Such magic places
38:52You can be with other people
38:58Without having anyone at all
39:04But now
39:09They say they're closing
39:14So I'm loitering outside
39:20Watching all the cars passing by
39:25Like a kid waiting for my ride
39:37I'll do anything for you to love me again
39:48If you don't like me now
39:57I will change for you
40:05Change for you
40:27Missy everybody
40:28That's it for the Late Show
40:29Good night
40:35You
40:36You
40:36You
40:36You
40:41You
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