-After Tesla and SpaceX C.E.O. Elon Musk's
acquisition of Twitter, one of the big political questions
looming over the platform is
whether Donald Trump will get his account back.
Meanwhile, progressives are sounding the alarm
about billionaire control of media and big-tech companies.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm guessing by now most of you have heard the news
about Twitter, unless you're not on Twitter,
in which case congratulations on having a life,
because Twitter has stolen mine.
Do you guys remember when Twitter started
and the big complaint was people posting pictures of their food?
Just remember, it can always get worse than food.
It's like when your Aunt goes on forever about
her favorite restaurant, and you think, "This story sucks,"
and then your uncle starts talking about
how tough white people have it
and you realize you miss the restaurant story.
[ Laughter ]
In fact, when it comes to Twitter,
I wish I had the same approach to posting
that actor Michael Caine has.
On Monday, he tweeted out of nowhere,
after several months of silence, "Hello!"
And then almost immediately followed that up
with a second tweet that said, "Good Night My Sweet Ones."
[ Laughter ]
And hasn't tweeted since.
He popped in, took one look around,
and then he just got the hell out of there.
I imagine that Michael Caine checking out what was going on
with Twitter looked a lot like this.
-Go. [ Explosion ]
[ Clattering ]
-[ British accent ] "Elon, you were only supposed
to blow the bloody doors off."
[ Laughter ]
[ Normally ] We asked ourselves, "Can we shoehorn
a Michael Caine impression into 'A Closer Look' today?"
And the answer was, "Yes, we Caine."
[ Laughter ]
Among the many questions now looming over Twitter
after Musk's acquisition of the company
is whether Donald Trump, who used his Twitter account
to foment coups, direct harassment,
disseminate dangerous lies, disinformation and racism,
will get his account back.
For his part, Trump himself has said
that even if he's allowed to return, he won't.
-Ever since Elon Musk first raised the prospect
a couple weeks ago that he might buy Twitter,
speculation has swirled that, among other things,
this could result in the former president, Donald Trump,
rejoining the social-media site.
Trump, of course, was banned from Twitter
January of last year
for using the site
to try to foment a violent insurrection
to overthrow the U.S. government.
In response to the speculation that he might be reinstated
to the platform, under an Elon Musk-owned version of Twitter,
Trump himself has reportedly said
that he won't rejoin Twitter, even if he's allowed to.
-I'm sorry, but there's no way Trump won't immediately
go back to tweeting if he's given the chance.
He'll go back to tweeting with the same energy
Marty McFly went back to the future,
which makes sense because compared to Twitter,
Truth Social feels like kissing your mom.
And I think that joke really illustrates the...
-♪ Power of love ♪
-Can you feel it?
Plus, Trump doesn't have the self-restraint
to stay off Twitter.
Offering him his Twitter back
is like offering Keith Richards a cigarette.
"Yeah, I'm already smoking one, but alright.
I guess that's what these two fingers are for."
[ Laughter ]
Twitter was Trump's lifeblood.
He once called himself the Ernest Hemingway of Twitter.
And according to Politico, he used to marvel
at how quickly his tweets appear on the television screen.
He's like a cat in a science experiment who figures out,
if he rings the bell, he gets a treat.
[ Bell jingles ]
[ Laughter ]
"Ring the bell, get a treat.
It's one of the best deals I've ever made.
It's -- 'Cause ringing the bell, it costs me nothing. So easy.
And the treat, let me tell you about the treats.
There's tuna.
There's tuna, and there's chicken."
[ Laughter ]
And let me just say for the record
that while banning Trump from Twitter
has always been complicated, I think it would be terrible,
certainly for me, if Trump got his Twitter back.
Mainly, not having him on Twitter has just been
a huge quality-of-life improvement.
Although I will admit, there have been times when,
against my better instincts, I have wondered
what Trump would have tweeted during big-news stories,
less for the awful opinions
and more for the weird grammar and punctuation.
Like, can you imagine what he would have said
about Will Smith at the Oscars?
[ Laughter ]
But Trump claims
he still wants to steer people
toward his dumb social media platform,
which has had a rocky roll-out,
including bugs and glitches
that have made it difficult for people to join.
And it can't help that Trump himself seems incapable
of remembering or even pronouncing
the name of his own site, which is called Truth Social,
as we learned during a Trump rally in Ohio last week.
-They conspired to ban me from every social media platform
on the face of the Earth.
Millions and millions of you
had already experienced big tech's vicious censorship.
Because of this digital tyranny,
we had to give the American people their voice back
by building something called "troth" --
"truth senchal."
[ Laughter ]
-And it's just amazing.
He got mad at Twitter and made up his own version
out of pure vengeance,
and he can't even remember what it's called.
[ Laughter ]
This is like if Darth Vader was giving a speech
to unveil the Death Star and said, "[Crackles]
Soon, the universe will bow to the Empire.
I give you the...
Kill Ball?
[ Laughter ]
Death Ball?
Kevin?
Is Kevin back there?
What is it, again?
But it's not really a star, though, is it, Kevin?
No, oh, no, I get it.
'Ball' is not great.
Thank you, Kevin."
[ Laughter ]
Also, could we just watch that clip one more time?
-We had to give the American people their voice back
by building something called "troth" --
"truth senchal."
-The best is in his head.
He's like, "I'm glad I saved that 'troth' part."
[ Laughter ]
"Stumbled on 'troth,' but then got it back."
[ Laughter ]
But, yeah, everyone should join
Donald Trump's new social media platform, Truth Central.
Truth Central sounds like the name of a law enforcement agency
in a dystopian sci-fi movie where Tom Cruise arrests people
for crimes before they happen. [ Laughter ]
Maybe that explains why Rudy Giuliani always looks
like a precog who just woke up. [ Laughter ]
You don't have to be a precog...
to know we were gonna use that picture of Rudy again.
[ Laughter ]
Let me save you all the slime bath.
And maybe Trump's inability to advertise
his own social media site is hurting its success
because they're clearly desperate for people to sign up.
On Tuesday, the C.E.O. of Truth Social,
former Congressman Devin Nunes,
perhaps the world's only postcog,
pleaded with the hosts of "Fox & Friends" to join the site
and reveal their version of the word "tweet is truth,"
meaning that a post on the site is known as a truth,
and posting a truth is known as "truthing,"
which is, of course, incredibly dumb
and sounds even dumber coming out of Nunes' mouth.
-We're so excited that you're on Truth.
You're getting followers very, very quickly,
but you need to send some truths out
if you want to get more followers.
But also, Brian, you're on Truth, we need you to truth.
But Doocy, I got to talk to him.
So he's got to turn his phone on and click on the app.
He's been let in.
-Every time you think your life is bad, just remember,
you can be a former Congressman begging Brian Kilmeade,
a man with the eyes of a Cabbage Patch doll, to send out truths.
Nunes sounds like he should be in a phone booth,
begging his bookie to let him place one more bet.
"Oh, come on, Ricky. You know I'm good for it.
I got a horse who's a guaranteed winner!
I want to put a million bucks on him.
They call him Truth. Central Truth?
No, wait, the Truth Star?
Oh, God, don't hang up on me, Ricky!
Ricky!" [ Laughter ]
Nunes always looks like he should be crying in his car
in the parking lot of Lumon Industries.
That's our second reference to "Severance,"
the Apple TV show that has
taken the "Late Night" offices by storm.
The first was on Monday, and based on the response from
the audience, it seemed like not everyone was caught up.
But it's Wednesday now, so to update us
on where you are in regards to "Severance," do please go to
@seacaptainpolls on Twitter,
where the options will be, "yes, I'm caught up now,"
"no, I'm still behind,"
or "who the [bleep] is the Sea Captain?"
And just to show you how bad the bugs are
in Trump's Truth Social app,
later in the interview, Fox host Steve Doocy did as instructed.
He opened his phone and told Nunes he was still
in a waiting list to join the app.
-Congressman, I'm looking.
I just signed on, and it says
I have been created successfully.
"Due to massive demand, we have placed you on a wait list."
I'm number 621,000, still.
-A waiting list?
Isn't the whole point of the Internet
that everything is instant?
This is like if you clicked on Apple Maps
and it was just a list of places where you can buy a map.
[ Laughter ]
But even with their own social media platform at stake,
Trump, Nunes, and their fellow Republicans
are still celebrating the news
about Tesla and SpaceX C.E.O. Elon Musk
finalizing a deal to buy Twitter.
And I have to say,
it's certainly an interesting decision
from a business perspective to say the least,
given that Twitter is not even profitable.
-Elon Musk is taking over Twitter
to the tune of $44 billion.
After weeks of corporate wrangling,
Twitter's board of directors
accepting the billionaire's buyout offer
in a unanimous vote.
-What do we know about Elon Musk's plans
to monetize Twitter,
a company that hasn't made a profit
for 8 of the past 10 years?
-One of the consistent issues that Twitter has had
for a very long time has been
making this company consistently profitable.
And for a very long time, that hasn't been the case.
But I think this is really more about ideology for Elon.
-Musk has, according to him,
raised about $13 billion from Morgan Stanley.
He's got another $12.5 billion
he will help fund with loans against his Tesla stock.
And he's adding $21 billion of his own cash.
-$44 billion?
I mean, with money like that,
you could do something about poverty or climate change
or world hunger
and still have enough left over
to, I don't know, get a decent haircut?
[ Laughter ]
It looks like Tesla isn't the only thing that uses plugs.
Please don't kick me off Twitter, Elon, please!
It's the only place I can go where people call me a cuck.
I know it's a crazy thing to like, but...
classic cuck behavior, right?
[ Laughter ]
So, obviously, there are potentially
some really bad outcomes here.
But regardless of whether you're pro-Musk or anti-Musk,
let's maybe take a step back and reconsider
whether it's a good thing that everyone's just rooting
for different billionaires like sports teams,
which are also owned by billionaires,
a fact, I've been reminded of repeatedly
by my crew after hedge-fund titan Steve Cohen
bought the Mets, who now have the most wins in baseball.
And seeing how it's April, that should hold up.
[ Laughter ]
Famously, the Mets are in October what they are in April.
Yesterday, after the Mets won their sixth series in a row,
our security guard, Jim Bryer, came up to me weeping
and said, "This is the greatest day of my life."
And then I asked him what the second-best day was,
and he said, "When you got COVID."
Not cool, Jim.
[ Laughter ]
Not cool.
Not that I'd ever say that to his face.
I mean, look at the guy.
I was talking to what I thought was Jim for 20 minutes,
and it turned out it was just a rock in Central Park.
[ Laughter ]
[ Chuckles ]
[ Laughter ]
Maybe, just maybe, it's not healthy for our democracy
when Twitter, Facebook, and "The Washington Post"
are all owned by some of the richest men in the world,
not to mention the fact that Fox, "The Wall Street Journal,"
and a network of right-wing media outlets are owned
by another right-wing billionaire
who's on the list of the 100 richest people in the world.
That's not a free market.
That's an oligarchy,
which is why workers
at major companies like Amazon and Starbucks
are trying to win back power by unionizing,
a movement that's growing stronger by the day.
Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. rallied with Amazon workers
in Staten Island over the weekend,
and Bernie recently took to the Senate floor
to champion the reinvigorated union movement,
in typical Bernie fashion.
-Unions provide better wages,
benefits, and working conditions for their members.
That is what unions do.
Not complicated.
That is why it makes sense to join a union
and why it makes sense for us
to do everything that we can
to grow the trade-union movement in this country.
And I know there are some folks out there
who are not union members and they're saying,
"Well, it doesn't really impact me."
You're wrong. It does.
-I love when Bernie cuts through the bull[bleep].
I wish they would have let him host "Jeopardy!"
"What is the Spanish Armada?"
"You're wrong."
"Aren't you, um --
Aren't you supposed to tell us the right answer now?"
"If you want to know the right answers,
you should have studied harder.
Now pick a category, or I'll pick it for you!"
[ Laughter ]
No one knows how Musk's acquisition of Twitter
will turn out or whether Trump will return to the platform
and what the effect of that will be.
But one thing we can know for sure
is that this much power and wealth
in the hands of so few people is definitely bad for democracy.
We need a system that relies less on the power of money
and more on the...
-♪ Power of love ♪
[ Cheers and applause, light laughter ]
-When it barely got a reaction the first time,
did you think, "Oh, no, that's our callback"?
[ Laughter ]
You know what this means, Sal?
You know where you and I have to go.
Back to the future!
[ Laughter ]
"Don't do the 'Power of Love' joke!"
[ Laughter ]
Let's see, we did a little Michael Caine.
We got that in there. Keith Richards.
[ Muttering indistinctly ] I think we got everything.
This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
God's Love We Deliver cooks and brings
over two million meals a year to men, women, and children
living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illness,
and they need your help now more than ever.
If you're watching this online, you can hit the donate button.
Stay safe. Get vaccinated. We love you.