Lame duck comedian Stephen Colbert went on a tirade against President Donald Trump’s tariffs and heralded the supposedly impending doom of skyrocketing prices, and ended up beclowning himself in the process.
The disgruntled Late Show host snarked to his audience August 7, “I hope you remembered to set your clocks back to ‘more expensive,’” following Trump’s punitive tariffs on India for its continued purchase and resale of Russian oil and Brazil following a showdown with communist president Lula da Silva “over trade, energy, and the high-profile trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” according to Fox Business.
Colbert, never missing an opportunity to go after his nemesis, snooted how “[t]hey raise import taxes to the highest level since the Great Depression. Never a great sign. Never a great sign to be compared to the worst thing ever.” But there was a time when paying higher prices didn’t matter as much to Colbert, because there was a different guy in the White House.
On March 8, 2022, then-President Joe Biden placed an outright ban — which is worse than tariffs — on Russian oil imports which threatened spikes of higher energy prices during America’s already worsening inflation crisis. The night before, Colbert — worth $75 million — pontificated to struggling Americans that it was actually good that the U.S. and European allies were considering such measures to fight Russia for its war with Ukraine despite potential energy price shocks. “A clean conscience is worth a buck or two.” He continued his nonsense with a facetious twist: “I’m willing to pay $4 a gallon. Hell, I'll pay $15 a gallon because I drive a Tesla.” Two days after he said this, consumer prices were shown to have shot up 7.9 percent year-over-year for the worst inflation increase in 40 years at the time.
Now that the politics have shifted, Colbert is completely changing his tune, even though Trump is raising prices on Indian imports in particular because its ongoing energy trade with the Russians is sustaining— *checks notes* — “Moscow’s wartime economy amid Western sanctions,” as Fox Business noted.
So what happened to all that moral grandstanding Colbert was babbling about three years ago over the need to stick it to the Russians and have “a clean conscience?” Apparently, that went through him like crap through a goose once Trump took the reins again.
Enjoy retirement Colbert, and while you’re learning how to actually tell a funny joke it would be good to maintain some modicum of intellectual consistency while you’re at it. Derp.
