-The President is lying about refugees
as he and his ex-national security adviser, John Bolton,
argue over whether Bolton quit or was fired.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
As we've established before, Trump's entire political career
has been built on racist conspiracy theories
about immigrants and people of color.
Today, for example, it was reported
that the Trump administration won't give
temporary protective status to people from the Bahamas
who fled Hurricane Dorian.
And when he was asked about that on Monday, Trump said this.
-We have to be very careful.
Everybody needs totally proper documentation
because, look, the Bahamas has some tremendous problems
with people going to the Bahamas
that weren't supposed to be there.
I don't want to allow people
that weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas
to come into the United States,
including some very bad people and some very bad gang members
and some very, very bad drug dealers.
-I'm sorry. So you think gang members
and drug dealers snuck into the Bahamas
then hid out there and waited for a hurricane
so they could eventually pretend to be refugees
and sneak into the United States.
"Psst! I need to get this kilo of cocaine
into the United States."
"No problem. Just take it to the Bahamas
and then wait five years."
The only people who have ever been in the Bahamas
who weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas
are old people who got on the wrong cruise.
"I thought we were going to Barbados!"
Trump has always conflated immigrants with criminals
despite the fact that immigrants commit crimes
at lower rates than native-born Americans.
This is in many ways the central lie of his political career,
and he repeated it again during a rally on Monday,
even doing some crowd work with the audience in North Carolina.
-One of the biggest issues in this election
is, in fact, sanctuary cities.
Sanctuary-city policies that force prisons and jails
to release criminal aliens
directly into your neighborhoods.
"Get out. Go ahead. Go into the neighborhood.
[ Crowd booing ] Go into..."
What's your neighborhood? Where do you live?
-Rutherford. -What?
Rutherford County.
[ Cheers and applause ] Okay.
So, how do you feel about having them release
hardened, horrible criminals into Rutherford County?
I don't think so.
-Oh, they're releasing hardened criminals
into Rutherford County?
Are your aides on parole?
I mean, seriously.
Now...
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now he's -- he's just making up scary stories.
He should hold his rallies in the dark
with a flashlight under his face.
He's like a racist Stephen King.
"Where do you live? Maine?
How would you like it if they released clowns into your sewers
that bit your arms off?"
In fact, Trump seems to be
getting more into crowd work at his rallies
because after he had asked people if they'd be cool
with fictional criminals rampaging through their streets,
he polled the audience
on a very complex, esoteric policy question,
a question that has vexed and bedeviled
academics for centuries,
a question of such import that it could very well define
Trump's presidency and this country for decades to come.
-What do you like better?
"Made in America" or "Made in the U.S.A."?
Go ahead.
Wait. Ready? We'll go "Made in America."
Then "Made in the U.S.A."
What do you like better? "Made in America"?
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Made in the U.S.A."
[ Loud cheers and applause ]
Okay.
-[ Chanting ] U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
-So I think we know that answer.
-That might be the single dumbest thing
I've ever seen in...
[ Cheers and applause ]
...in, uh...
Dumbest thing I've ever seen in any arena,
and I'm including the time the Toronto Raptors mascot
tried to skate down the stairs and fell flat on his face.
[ Laughter ]
And, honestly, if at any point this "Closer Look" bums you out,
just Google "mascot fails."
It's a lot of fun.
In fact, at the end of this segment,
when it's time for me to do my little wrap-up
summarizing how bad everything is,
we're just going to put some mascot fails
over my shoulder to keep you entertained.
Before we do that, that clip right there
really feels like Trump in a nutshell.
False, performative patriotism,
pretending he's making decisions,
when all he really cares about is branding himself.
Before that rally, he was probably up all night
trying to crack that one like Mozart writing a symphony.
"Made in America? No?
Made in the United States? No.
Made in the U.S. of A?
Damn it, Donald. You can do this!"
And the same empty symbolism
is the hallmark of Trump's foreign policy.
During the campaign, he lied
and said he'd been against the Iraq War from the beginning
but also called himself the most militaristic person ever
and proclaimed his support for a bunch of war crimes
including torture, taking Iraq's oil,
and killing the families of terrorists.
And, of course, he famously said
his main adviser on foreign policy was himself
and that he got all his ideas from watching television.
-Who do you talk to for military advice right now?
-Well, I watch the shows.
I mean, I really see a lot of great --
You know, when you watch your show
and all of the other shows
and you have the generals and you have certain people --
-But is there somebody -- Is there a go-to for you?
You know? Every presidential candidate has a go-to.
-Probably there are two or three.
-Since we have some dire foreign-policy issues
percolating around the world right now,
who are you consulting with consistently
so that you're ready on day one?
-I'm speaking with myself, number one,
because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things.
-Oh, my gosh.
"I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things."
It sounds like they translated rap lyrics into Japanese
and then back into English with outdated software.
That sounds like a tape recording
a psychological profile would play during a trial
where the defendant is pleading insanity.
"I heard the defendant having a conversation in his cell,
and I asked him who he was speaking with, and he said this."
-I'm speaking with myself, number one,
because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things.
-"Defendant is legally insane. Court adjourned."
[ Cheers and applause ]
So, Trump says he gets his foreign-policy advice
from the shows, and, of course,
in particular he was talking about Fox News.
That's where he saw John Bolton,
the former Bush administration official and Fox News pundit
who Trump hired last year
as his third national security adviser, which was horrifying
because Bolton is an unrepentant warmonger
who has pushed for a regime change in Iraq, Iran, Syria,
Venezuela, and North Korea.
In fact, a former Trump administration official
actually told "The New Yorker,"
"John wants to bomb everyone."
And it's dangerous to have someone like that
around Donald Trump because Trump is very impressionable.
If Marilyn Manson had a show on Fox News,
Trump would show up to his next press conference
with jet black hair and a nose ring.
It was always terrifying knowing that an extremist neocon
like Bolton had the ear of an impressionable president
who had no idea what he was doing
and who took his advice from TV pundits.
The relationship was always weird.
And yesterday, it came to an end when Trump fired Bolton.
Or maybe Bolton quit. We don't really know
because, as usual, it happened in the most chaotic way possible
with Trump tweeting about it and Bolton texting reporters
while they were live on the air reporting on his firing.
-Trump announced he'd fired Bolton this morning on Twitter,
writing, "I informed John Bolton last night
that his services are no longer needed at the White House."
-We're just hearing from Peter Baker
that John Bolton has texted him, as well,
saying that he offered to resign and resign today.
So that version is differing very much
from the firing version that comes from the President.
-John Bolton just texted me. Just now. He's watching.
-Can you read it? -Yeah.
He said, "Let's be clear. I resigned."
And I said, "Do you mind if I say that?
while you were talking, and he wrote, "Yes."
So John Bolton has just told me, texted me to say, "I resigned."
-This is insane.
They're all talking to each other through the television.
Trump is firing people via tweet,
Bolton is texting news anchors on live TV to respond.
It's like if you were watching a soap opera,
and in the soap opera, one of the characters said,
"Oh, my God, John's evil twin is at home watching this,
and he just texted me to say...
he's alive."
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
Today during a meeting in the Oval Office
Trump was asked about his decision to fire Bolton
and tried simultaneously to criticize Bolton
for his extremist views while also insisting
that he was tougher than Bolton,
but he also specifically and repeatedly went out of his way
to criticize Bolton for his role in the Iraq War.
-What led you to decide to part ways?
-So, John is somebody
that I actually got along with very well.
He made some very big mistakes,
and, frankly, he wanted to do things
not necessarily tougher than me.
John's known as a tough guy.
He's so tough, he got us into Iraq.
And, you know, John wasn't in line with what we were doing,
and actually in some cases he thought it was too tough
what we were doing.
Mr. Tough Guy. You know, you have to go into Iraq.
Going into Iraq was something
that he felt very strongly about.
So we're right now in for over $7 trillion
into the Middle East.
But he was very out there, I can tell you,
and wanting to have them do it.
I thought it was a terrible mistake.
-If you knew all that then,
why did you hire him in the first place?
This is like firing someone for embezzlement
when they had "embezzlement" under "special skills"
on their résumé.
Now, again, it's absolutely a good thing
that an extremist warmonger like Bolton is gone,
but it's also bad that he was even hired in the first place.
So where does this leave us as a nation?
Allow me to summarize. Cue the mascot fails.
John Bolton is an unrepentant warmonger
who was hired by a president who has no consistent world view
when it comes to foreign policy, or anything for that matter.
All he has are the racist conspiracy theories
he concocts in his rotting brain
and the paranoid right-wing media apparatus
that feeds him those theories
and then disseminates them to his base.
Having Bolton in the White House was a nightmare, but it's
just as terrifying to imagine who Trump might hire next.
I mean, who knows?
If all he does is hire people he sees on TV,
he might as well go ahead and pick this guy.
[ Laughter ]
This has been "A Closer Look."