John Oliver took pictures at Donald Trump‘s “money grabs,” together with mugshot T-shirts (which learn “Not Responsible”), branded cologne, a Bible, mini audio system with Trump’s likeness and gold-colored earpods and sneakers, on Sunday’s version of Final Week Tonight.
The HBO late-night host began the section by noting that Trump has “had a tough run within the courts currently. Between the E. Jean Carroll defamation judgment and New York State’s fraud case, he’s on the hook for over half a billion {dollars}, however even that doesn’t seize the complete extent of the monetary harm. Apparently since leaving workplace, he spent greater than $100 million on authorized payments alone, which averages greater than $90,000 a day, none of it paid for together with his personal cash,” Oliver added, citing a New York Occasions report. “Actually, so much has come from his supporters as a result of he’s repeatedly used his authorized troubles as a pretext to ask for donations, together with this plea on Tuesday.”
Oliver then confirmed a video, which appeared to have low manufacturing worth, of Trump saying to his supporters: “We’re combating. We’re successful. You see what’s occurring. So no matter you are able to do to assist financially can be unbelievable, as a result of now we have to beat it if it’s $5 or $10 or $100, no matter you are able to do.”
Replied Oliver: “That may be a man who talks nonstop about how he’s one of many richest males on Earth, begging strangers for cash in a hostage video that appears prefer it was filmed in a home haunted by the world’s tackiest ghosts.”
Oliver then famous the aforementioned merchandise that Trump is promoting to boost cash, together with the “Trump mini speaker,” which bears the Republican presidential candidate’s likeness (“and I assume is means too loud and by no means dies,” Oliver quipped) and the gold Trump earbuds case, “which does remedy a reasonably widespread problem. You already know how one can by no means inform which Airpods are yours and that are your pals, as a result of all of the instances look the identical? Properly, when you get these, you lose all your pals immediately — drawback solved.”
Oliver went on to notice that these merchandise aren’t possible to herald the half a billion {dollars} that Trump wants to boost.
“What would possibly, although, is a improvement that happened this week concerning his social media web site, Fact Social,” Oliver famous. “It was created to principally be a right-wing model of Twitter earlier than Twitter basically grew to become that itself.”
Oliver argued that the platform is a “ripoff” of Twitter (now X), the place customers have profiles and may observe each other. The platform additionally permits customers to publish “truths” and “retruths” and options advertisements which might be known as “sponsored truths.”
“That’s only a deeply dystopian phrase,” Oliver mentioned. ” It feels like one thing George Orwell typed into the primary draft of 1984 earlier than considering, ‘That’s somewhat on the nostril.’”
Fact Social is owned by TMTG, or Trump Media and Know-how Group, which began to be publicly traded this previous week beneath the ticker DJT. On Tuesday, the primary day of buying and selling, the inventory surged 56% to $78 and ended the day at $57.99. It presently has a market capitalization of about $8 billion.
“However that worth is completely divorced from the underlying enterprise, which is a large number,” Oliver mentioned, noting that two of the individuals concerned within the creation of the platform, Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky, have been each fired from Trump’s former actuality competitors present The Apprentice.
“Actually, when Trump removed [Litinsky], he made it abundantly clear how little he considered him,” Oliver mentioned, exhibiting a clip of Trump telling the contestant: “Andy, you’re simply being pounded on. You’re being outdebated. I simply don’t need any person working one among my corporations that’s gonna get overwhelmed up so badly. You’re fired.”
Oliver identified that the problem Litinsky was fired for concerned designing a brand new Pepsi bottle. The design in query featured what appeared like a globe on the high and backside being cinched within the center by the Pepsi wrapper.
“It seems like a globe sporting a girdle,” Oliver quipped. “It seems like a trophy you win on the geography bee. It’s the worst thought Pepsi has ever been related to, and I’ll remind you that they had a business the place Kendall Jenner used Pepsi to unravel racism.”
Each Moss and Litinsky have since been pushed out of the corporate and sued Trump.
Oliver additionally identified that the platform does run advertisements, however not from main sponsors.
“There have been advertisements for a child’s information to combating socialism, antiwoke life insurance coverage, ivermectin, the official pillow of storming the Capitol and this bear, who not too long ago misplaced custody of the twins,” he joked. “And one of many causes they will’t get greater advertisers possibly be as a result of there simply aren’t that many individuals on the platform to promote to.”
He cited information estimating that Fact Social has slightly below half one million month-to-month lively customers within the U.S on iPhones and Android gadgets, in comparison with 75 million customers on X and 142 million customers on Fb.
“However even that quantity is shrinking as its month-to-month lively customers are lower than half what they have been a yr in the past,” he added of Fact Social’s numbers. “And but its inventory is buying and selling extremely excessive as a result of Trump supporters imagine shopping for it’s a method to concurrently personal the libs, give Trump cash and, they’d argue, make a revenue themselves.”
Oliver argued that’s principally a meme inventory now, with its worth rising primarily based on the identical precept behind meme shares like GameStop or AMC Theatres.
“If sufficient traders purchase shares, they will drive the worth up and everybody can someway get out earlier than the bubble burst,” he mentioned. “However the GameStop motion was not less than nominally about wresting monetary energy away from shitty wealthy arseholes and restoring it to the little man, whereas this motion is about funneling the little man’s cash on to the shittiest wealthy arsehole there’s.”