The comedian John Oliver’s disdain for the Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is no secret. Last night (April 3), the host of Last Week Tonight offered yet another reason to worry about Trump’s advancement to the front of the Republican pack, honing in on the candidate’s answer to a question on nuclear policy during a CNN town hall: ”At some point, we have to say, you know what, we’re better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea, we’re better off if South Korea is going to start to protect itself,” said Trump. Asked if he felt the same way about Saudi Arabia having nuclear weapons, Trump answered, “Absolutely.”
Oliver also noted that Trump has defended the use of nuclear weapons in Europe, offering such iron-clad justifications as, “Europe is a big place.” (That’s barely a good enough reason the pee in the ocean, Oliver remarks.)
Trump’s comments came at the worst possible time—before the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, DC last week, where more than 50 world leaders gathered to discuss how to prevent nuclear terrorism. Oliver showed a clip of president Barack Obama’s dry response to Trump’s comment:
“The person who made the statements don’t know much about foreign policy, or nuclear policy. Or the Korean peninsula. Or the world generally.”