As countries around the world continue to battle the global COVID-19 pandemic, it appears that US President Donald Trump's actions during this time and his handling of the ongoing crisis have earned the ire of popular comedian John Oliver.
Following Trump's visit to the Honeywell mask manufacturing facility in Arizona, where he was seen not wearing a mask, Oliver slammed the president after the latter told media that he "can’t help it if you didn’t see me wearing one".
"What are you talking about? I can’t help it if you didn’t see me? Of course, you can! It’s a photo-op! The whole point is to show them the thing that you were supposed to be doing", the comedian said during a recent episode of his "Last Week Tonight" show. "Still, I will say this: of all of Trump’s ideological wavering over the years, one thing has remained consistent, he’s never used protection, and he’s never not been an a**hole about it afterward."
Oliver also didn't seem particularly thrilled by the use of Guns N' Roses cover of “Live and Let Die” during said photo op, or how Trump described all people in the United States as “warriors”.
"All people are warriors in this country. We’re all warriors. You can be with somebody. Everything’s fine. And then something happens to them personally and they all of the sudden test positive. And, uh, we’re all warriors together. I am. You are. All people are", Trump said.
"Oh! Are we? That’s interesting because we don’t actually have to be warriors here. To the extent that we are, you don’t need to be throwing us into battle unarmed before we have mechanisms set up to broadly test, isolate, and trace cases of the virus", Oliver retorted. "You can’t just call everyone warriors and make their deaths not count. You get the sense that if God had told Trump about the flood, he wouldn’t have bothered building the Ark, he would have just tried to convince the animals they’re all fish. ‘We’re all fish together now. I’m a fish. You’re a fish. We’re all fish.'"
The show elicited a somewhat mixed reaction online, as while a number of social media users seemed to agree with Oliver's stance on Trump, there were also those who appeared critical of the comedian himself.