Near the top of the Wednesday monologue of his eponymous TBS show, Conan O’Brien joked that Donald Trump reminded him of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the way he sculpts his hair and interacts with crowds.
Upon pretending to form his hair into more like Trump’s, O’Brien remarked: “I like that Mussolini thing he does. He looks out at the crowd. He's got this guy on his head.”
O’Brien prefaced that by bringing up Trump’s wife Melania and how she’s “starting to speak out more” with an interview in Harper’s Bazaar in which she stated that “she was initially attracted to Donald because of his energy.”
He then quipped: “Yes. By the way, energy is the Slovenian word for money. That's how they call it. They call it energy.”
This marked the latest comparison to a World War II-era authoritarian figure in the last two months by O’Brien. Back on December 9, O’Brien joked that Trump had criticized current German Chancellor Angela Merkel because “Germany hasn't had a great leader since the 1940's.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from TBS’s Conan on January 6 can be found below.
TBS’s Conan
January 6, 2016
11:03 p.m. Eastern
CONAN O’BRIEN: Donald Trump's wife starting to speak out more. [AUDIENCE MEMBER SCREAMS] [LAUGHS] Huge, huge Trump wife fan in the audience.
ANDY RICHTER: Slovenia speaking up here.
O’BRIEN: Donald Trump's latest wife Melania said she was initially attracted to Donald because of his energy. Yes. By the way, energy is the Slovenian word for money. That's how they call it. They call it energy. [SCULPS HAIR LIKE TRUMP] I like that Mussolini thing he does.
RICHTER: Yeah, yeah.
O’BRIEN: He looks out at the crowd. He's got this guy on his head.
