Soon after news broke of a Chinese warship seizing an underwater drone operated by the U.S. Navy last week, Donald Trump engaged in yet another international incident-creating tweet storm over the weekend. What’s more, the president-elect had the gall to take credit for the drone’s return to the American authorities. This digital form of diplomacy wasn’t the first time Trump has used his Twitter account to antagonize U.S. allies and enemies alike, and seeing how the president-elect hasn’t even taken office yet, it surely won’t be the last.
Hence why Late Night host Seth Meyers introduced a new segment on Tuesday called “Tweetin’ with the Prez,” which the comedian explained would help the show and its viewers “keep up with Donald Trump’s activity on social media.” Like the “Closer Look” bits before it, “Tweetin'” will help Late Night carry on The Daily Show‘s torch on broadcast television — albeit with more Trump. And Lassie… don’t forget Lassie:
“He writes his tweets like he’s interpreting them from a border collie. ‘What’s that, girl? Way down? Big trouble? Dead? Mine collapse? Worker trapped? Call the sheriff! Go!'”
Ignoring for a moment that Meyers and his writers’ misidentifying the pictured dog’s breed (both it and Lassie are what’s called a Rough Collie), the analogy stupidly makes a lot of sense. Whether or not Trump is taking his tweet text from his furry social media advisor, or said advisor is taking Trump’s dictation, however, remains to be seen.
Cute fluffy dogs notwithstanding, the main purpose of Meyers’ new segment will evidently be to highlight something most political commenters are already aware of. Mainly, that Donald Trump frequently tweets about nonsense, and said nonsense has been having real-world effects for some time. The social media and diplomatic fallout from his phone call with the Taiwanese president demonstrated this earlier this month, and judging by how fast Trump blew up the drone story, this situation won’t improve anytime soon.
