-The president met with the leader of Hungary
while he was feuding with China,
and his lawyer was trying to get Ukraine
to meddle in the 2020 election.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look.'
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Trump met today with the Prime Minister of Hungary,
Viktor Orbán, a far-right authoritarian strongman
who has curtailed democracy in his country,
has almost total control of the media,
has chipped away at the independence of the court,
and has implemented a crackdown on immigration that has made him
a pariah in Europe, or as Trump put it...
-Viktor Orbán has done a tremendous job
in so many different ways. Highly respected.
Respected all over Europe.
Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that's okay.
That's okay.
-A little bit controversial
is not how you describe a wannabe dictator.
That's how your aunt describes
"50 Shades of Grey." [ Laughter ]
That's a little bit controversial, but that's okay.
They're having fun.
But while Trump was palling around with
the authoritarian leader of Hungary,
he was also conducting a trade war with China.
Today China said it would impose retaliatory tariffs
against the U.S., and the stock market plummeted as a result.
But Trump shrugged it off, suggesting our economy
was strong enough to handle it while, as usual,
sounding incredibly vague.
-We're in a very strong position.
Our economy has been very powerful.
Theirs has not been.
We've gone up a lot since our great election in 2016,
and if you look at the numbers, they've gone down quite a bit.
We're dealing with them.
We have a very good relationship.
Maybe something will happen.
-Maybe something will happen?
Sounds like a Mafia boss doing a book report
on a book he's never even heard of.
[ Mobster accent ] "To Kill A Mockingbird,"
it's about a mockingbird.
He owes some people some money, maybe something bad happen.
Maybe the mockingbird had it coming. Capiche?
[ Laughter ]
Let's just say you don't got to worry about
anybody mocking anymore.
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] Trump casts himself as a master deal maker,
but what we're learning yet again
is that he's actually terrible at making deals.
This is what Trump does -- He creates myths about himself
until the truth comes out.
Like how he brags about his prowess at golf.
For example, you might remember
the time Trump held a round table of CEOs
on how to bring back manufacturing jobs
and made the CEO of General Electric tell a story
about how Trump supposedly hit a hole in one.
-Mr. President, good to see you again. Jeff Immelt, G.E.
-Hi, Jeff. -Great to be here.
Look forward to really working with you
on creating more manufacturing jobs.
-Jeff actually watched me make a hole in one.
Can you believe that? Should you tell that story?
[ Laughter ]
-We were trying to talk President Trump
into doing "The Apprentice."
That was my assignment when we owned NBC.
President Trump goes up to a par 3 on his course,
he looks to the three of us and says,
"You realize, of course, I'm the richest golfer in the world."
That's a comment, then gets a hole in one.
[ Laughter ]
-Crazy. -I have to say, you know,
I've seen the magic before. So --
[ laughter ] -It's so crazy. It's so crazy.
No, I actually said I was the best golfer
of all the rich people, to be exact.
-[ Laughs haughtily ]
[ Laughing continues ]
I spit out my caviar.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ] Just a true -- right there.
You have it, a true man of the people.
A billionaire president who cheats on his taxes
yucking it up with a bunch of wealthy CEOs
and bragging about how he's the richest golfer in the world.
It's like an episode of the "Twilight Zone"
written by Bernie Sanders.
[ As Sanders ] Imagine if will, a golfer,
but this is no ordinary golfer.
He's also the president, and the CEO of the "Twilight Zone."
[ Laughter and applause ]
Roll the episode. [ Cheers and applause ]
There's a twist at the end.
There's no hole.
[ Laughter ]
That's the twist. He -- Just golfing, there's no hole.
[ Laughter ]
Pretty good twist.
[ Normal voice ] Now we all know Trump cheats at golf.
He's notorious for it.
In fact, there's an entire book about it
called "Commander in Cheat."
That book came out last month,
which means it came out the same month as the Mueller report.
A book about cheating at politics,
and a book about cheating at golf.
This guy cheats so much, he had two separate books
about cheating come out in the same month.
Soon, it's going to be its own section at Barnes & Noble.
They'll be books, "Cheating in Marriage,"
there'll be "Cheating in School."
He'll have a book like, "Cheating in Cooking."
[ Laughter and applause ]
And the sportswriter who wrote the golf book
said last month on CNN that it wasn't just the occasional game.
Trump cheats in brazen and bewildering ways
even when he's playing the best golfers in the world.
-You're not just saying he cheats.
You're saying he cheats!
I mean he cheats on all of it.
-He cheats like a Mafia accountant.
He cheats crazy.
He cheats whether you're watching or not.
He cheats whether you like it or not.
He tried to cheat Tiger Woods in a match.
Tiger hits it like this. He hits two balls in the water,
doesn't count either,
and pretends that he almost tied Tiger Woods.
-He tried to cheat against Tiger Woods.
That's like challenging LeBron James
to a slam dunk contest and bringing a ladder.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Trump ] So I guess it's a draw.
Both dunked.
[ Normal voice ] And then last week we got maybe
the craziest cheating story yet from that same author
involving a guy named Ted Virtue,
the CEO of a New York investment firm.
Virtue was at Trump's golf course in Florida with his son.
Now this was while Trump was already president.
Here's how the story starts. Trump sees Ted on the 9th hole
and decides to drive his cart over.
He tells Ted, "Congrats on winning the club championship.
But you didn't really win it, because I was out of town."
And if you're curious where Trump was
when he says was out of town,
Trump was meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
This guy was at a high-stakes nuclear summit
with the leader of a rogue nation
all bummed out he was missing the club tournament.
Can you imagine the amount of whining and moaning
Kim Jong-un had to put up with?
[ As Trump ] You better disarm, because while I'm here,
Ted Virtue is winning my tournament.
Translate that. Translate that to him.
And tell him Ted Virtue's a real jerk. Say it.
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] But the story gets weirder from there.
Because Trump challenged Virtue and his son
to play for the club championship on the spot.
They get to a hole with a big pond in front of the green.
Both Ted and his son hit the ball on the green,
but Trump hits his in the water.
By the time they get to the hole though,
Trump is lining up the son's ball.
Only now it's his ball, and the caddy has switched it.
The son is like, "That's my ball."
But Trump's caddy goes "No, this is the president's ball.
Your ball went in the water."
Ted and his son look at each other confused,
not sure if this is really happening.
Oh, it's happening.
Everything you're not sure of is happening.
But this is what Trump does.
On stuff as big as a trade
or as small as a ball hit in the water,
he makes you question your sense of reality.
He's like a guy who only kind of knows
how to jedi mind trick you.
But instead of actually convincing you,
he just keeps saying it until you get irritated and give up.
[ As Trump ] This is not the ball you're looking for.
[ Normal voice ] No, yeah, that is actually my ball.
[ As Trump ] No, it's not.
[ Normal voice ] Yeah, no, it definitely is.
[ As Trump ] No, it's not.
[ Normal voice ] Yeah, it is.
[ As Trump ] No, it's not.
[ Normal voice ] Fine, whatever. Just take it.
[ As Trump ] You just got jedied.
[ Normal voice ] But there's a revealing part of this story,
and it involves what happens when Trump actually tries
to play in regulated matches with rules where he can't cheat.
This will shock you -- He's not nearly as good.
-He's played on television ten times,
Pebble Beach Pro-Am seven times,
and the Lake Tahoe thing three times.
He has never made the cut at Pebble Beach,
and at Tahoe, he's never finished in the top half.
So when there's rules guys and cameras,
he's not that good.
When it's just his course, his caddy, his world,
he's pretty good.
-In fact, as a general rule
I would say Donald Trump looks much worse
when there are cameras than when there are not.
On paper, Trump is a 6'3" self-made business genius
worth $10 billion who went to Wharton,
lives in a gold tower, and won a presidential election,
but on camera, he's a guy who openly colludes
with foreign adversaries,
sweats like he's chugging hot sauce at end of a marathon,
and can't pronounce words that are longer than two syllables.
-Every single car out there,
even the really expenses ones...
Controlled by large derners.
10,000 known or suspested gang members.
[ Laughter ] -Suspested.
As in everyone suspested that Trump cheats at golf,
but now we're positrive.
[ Laughter, cheers, and applause ]
But here's the thing, you guys...
Trump might be the most prolific cheater
in the Republican Party, but he's not alone.
The ranks of the GOP are filled with guys
who know they can only win if they cheat,
which is why they're so dedicated
to passing voter suppression laws, stacking the courts,
and accepting the help of foreign countries
interfering in our elections.
In fact, over the weekend,
we got some news of a very bizarre plot
by Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani,
to go to Ukraine and seek their help in the 2020 election.
-President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,
planning to travel to Ukraine soon.
"The New York Times" reports he will ask that country's
new president to investigate the origin
of special counsel Mueller's Russia investigation.
Giuliani will also press Ukraine to look into
Joe Biden's son's involvement in a gas company
owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.
-So, Rudy's plan was to fly to Ukraine and dig up dirt
on the Russia probe and Joe Biden?
First of all, you don't need to go to Ukraine
to dig up dirt on Biden.
There are actual pictures of the dude sniffing hair
and rubbing shoulders, and by the way,
it's not like this wasn't weird at the time.
I mean look at the faces of the dudes on either side.
They're like, "Uhhhh, should we go?"
Second, think about how crazy this is --
the president's lawyer is now just openly inviting
the interference of foreign governments
to dig up dirt on political opponents.
Rudy basically even admitted it when he told "The Times"
we're not meddling in an election,
we're meddling in an investigation,
which we have a right to do.
There's nothing illegal about it.
Somebody could say, it's improper.
All right. I'll say it.
It's improper.
The best thing about Rudy is he just admits everything.
We probably wouldn't have needed the Mueller report
if we had just given Rudy a podcast.
[ Laughter ]
After the story broke, Rudy went on Fox News
to announce that he wasn't going to Ukraine after all.
But the weirdest part of the interview was when
the anchor tried to end it, and Rudy would not stop talking,
up until the point where the anchor pointed out
that he was accidentally making more news.
-I am actually quite confident that the facts with regard
to Vice President -- former Vice President Biden
are so compelling that there's no way he gets from here
to the election without this being investigated.
-Okay, so -- -Tell me if this wouldn't be
major news if it were the Trumps.
-Mr. Mayor, we're out of time, but listen --
-Don't bother to answer. Just have your viewers answer.
-For now, we'll let the world know
you're not headed to Ukraine. -Right now, I'm not going.
-Alright. -So they can call me for it --
-We're out of time. -And maybe I'll take
executive privilege or something or other.
-Oh, boy. Oh, boy. -I don't know. We'll see.
Or maybe I'll testify. -You're making another headline
tonight Mr. Mayor. -Let's see what can happen,
but -- -Thank you for dropping in.
-They are really pathetic. -We have to go.
-And they're scared, and they're on defense.
-Alright, we got to go. Thank you for dropping in.
Great to see you.
-Oh, my God, Rudy!
Rudy did not want that interview to end.
[ As Giuliani ] Please don't send me back to the home!
The nurses are mean to me!
[ Laughter ]
Also, only a Fox anchor
would express shock and disappointment
at making another headline.
You just got the president's personal lawyer
to say that he might invoke executive privilege
if asked about a foreign trip to dig up dirt on
a political opponent to meddle in a presidential campaign.
Meaning, he's discussed that plan with the president himself.
Fox anchors react to news like when your 5-year-old admits
too much when you get to a birthday party.
We're late because we stopped at the store with bottles
to buy some daddy juice.
Alright. That's --
That's enough. That's not for them to know.
But this is what it's like inside the bubble --
whether it's cheating at golf or cheating at politics,
when these guys are in their own little world,
they operate by their own rules.
That's why Trump has so much affection for strongmen.
He thinks he's above the law, or as fox news would put it,
he's... -A little bit controversial,
but that's okay.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪