Late-night TV was flooded with reactions to President Donald Trump’s tweets about a ban on transgender people in the U.S. military on Wednesday night. It didn’t matter if you ended your day with James Corden, Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert — the topic dominated much of the evening’s talk show offerings.
Corden, host of “The Late Late Show,” dressed up in a tux to give his own rendition of Nat King Cole’s 1965 hit “L-O-V-E.” He remixed the track as “L-G-B-T,” singing of the president’s announcement.
Didn’t catch it? Here’s a little taste: “L, he doesn’t care for lesbians, G, he thinks two men should just be friends, B, to his dumb knowledge is just a phase in college, T, he finds confusing so the army’s now refusing trans women who only want to serve, trans men who want rights we all deserve.”
Waving a gay pride flag as cabaret dancers spun around him, Corden replaced the end of Cole’s chorus, “Love was made for me and you,” with “Trump’s got hate for me and you.”
The jabs didn’t end there.
On “The Tonight Show,” Fallon’s guest, transgender comedian Patti Harrison, gave a three-minute interview laced with sarcasm, saying Trump “probably thinks transgender people are those cars that turn into robots.”
Colbert started “The Late Show” by doing a Trump Twitter check-in; Trevor Noah sat down with two transgender U.S. Army veterans on “The Daily Show”; and Samantha Bee spent a solid portion of “Full Frontal” ranting about her opposition to the president’s decision.
Trump’s announcement came one year after a ban on transgender people in the military was lifted. Early Wednesday morning he sent out a series of tweets saying the military must be “focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
