Late-night shows are pretaped; they don’t air live (unless there’s a debate debrief to do). So sometimes there’s a weird dramatic irony in the air, like when Stephen Colbert made Trump’s escalation of tensions with Iran his monologue topic on Thursday night. Colbert explained that the current kerfuffle with Iran has to do with an unmanned drone that was shot down, and that retaliating over it “would be like starting a war over a downed washing machine.” He didn’t know Trump was about to approve a missile strike on Iran, then walk it back at the last minute. No one did. We can be pretty sure Trump didn’t know that he was going to do that.
Colbert Unpacks Trump’s Push for War With Iran
