Late-night hosts assessed Donald Trump’s deployment of the national guard for nonexistent crises and government dysfunction amid the ongoing shutdown.
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel took a moment to acknowledge his home base of Los Angeles on Wednesday. “We are safe, we are sound, thanks to our president who saved us from ourselves by calling in the national guard to stop a conflict that never started – but could have! Had he not acted to prevent an entirely fabricated crisis from spilling out of his imagination and on to our streets,” he said, referring to Trump’s deployment of the national guard in LA to prevent a nonexistent insurrection.
“Thank you, Mr President,” he continued. “Thank you for sending troops to occupy all of these Democrat-run cities, whether we want them or not. And we do not.
“After his successes stopping nothing here and in Washington,” Trump has sent the national guard to Portland and Chicago, over the objections of mayors and governors. Trump responded by calling for them to be jailed. “That’s a normal thing to do, right?” Kimmel deadpanned.
“This campaign to own the libs and deport everybody with a vowel at the end of their name is the passion project of a sick bald individual named Stephen Miller,” Trump’s deputy chief of staff who is “doing everything he can to turn this country into a militarized zone”.
Kimmel then played a clip of Miller pausing weirdly in the middle of an appearance on CNN, appearing to freeze up for several seconds. “Sometimes the batteries on dildos run out,” Kimmel joked. “You have to find a USB cable and you have to recharge him.
“Not only is this incredibly dangerous and incredibly unnecessary, it’s also just dumb,” he added. Trump, Kimmel noted, is reportedly considering invoking the Insurrection Act, a law from 1807 that would allow him to use the military to enforce his rules. “This guy can’t keep his insurrection in his pants any more,” he quipped.
“Trump and his buddies in the rightwing media are talking about Portland like it’s a scene from the Last of Us, when the reality is, this is what these troops are being called in to stop,” he said before clips of a handful of protesters, some wearing cute animal costumes, dancing outside an Ice detention facility.
“I think it’s really important that we know what’s going on,” Kimmel concluded. “So if you live in Portland, Chicago, Memphis, DC, any of the cities where Trump is sending the national guard to protect you from … squirrels, I don’t know, we want to see what’s going on. So please, make a video of your war-torn community and post it to YouTube with the hashtag #showmeyourhellhole.”
Seth Meyers
“We’re in the second week of the shutdown, and if it goes on much longer things could break down quickly,” said Seth Meyers on Wednesday’s Late Night. Previous government shutdowns have stalled food inspections, cancelled immigration hearings and delayed travel, as air traffic controllers and TSA workers were forced on the job without pay. Trash is already piling up in national parks.
Meyers emphasized that the shutdown was all about healthcare. “Premiums are about to skyrocket, and Democrats just want to extend the subsidies that will prevent that from happening,” he said. “Republicans admit it’s a problem and claim they’ll negotiate after the government reopens, but Senator Bernie Sanders isn’t so sure.”
Appearing on CNN, the progressive senator from Vermont said he would not agree to reopen the government because he does not trust them to negotiate. “They have had months and months to negotiate, and they have chosen not to,” he said. “The speaker of the House has said to his members: ‘You don’t even have to come back to Washington DC.’ Before any Democrats, sane Democrats, would agree to anything, it has to be explicit, written down, cross their fingers and so forth and so on. You can’t: ‘Oh open the government, we’ll negotiate with you.’ Really? Who believes that?”
“Bernie always shoots it straight,” said Meyers. “Maybe we should hire him as an air traffic controller.”
Meyers added: “The president could easily solve this by negotiating with Democrats in Congress, but he refuses. So now our government is descending into chaos.”
The Daily Show
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's chat with air traffic controllers was a masterclass in not helping pic.twitter.com/STEcuTQ999
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 9, 2025
And on The Daily Show, guest host Josh Johnson checked in on the state of air traffic control without pay. “Things are getting a little hairy in the skies, but don’t worry,” he said. “Because we’ve got Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, former Real World cast member and somehow most qualified cabinet member. And he is on the case.”
Earlier this week, Duffy posted a video on social media from Newark airport, where he went up into the tower to meet some air traffic controllers and ask them how the shutdown affected their work. One said: “It’s just a distraction that we don’t need.”
“Yeah, if there’s one thing I don’t need in a job like this, it’s a distraction,” Johnson responded. “The only thing more distracting than a shutdown would be if my boss showed up with a camera crew and made me do an interview facing away from the windows while I’m trying to land planes.”
The man went on to say that he needed pay soon to continue to support his family, prompting Duffy to suggest different types of things he owed: “mortgage, car payments, utility bills, food, all issues.”
“Not helping!” Johnson laughed. “Damn Duffy, he knows what bills he has to pay. You don’t need to make a whole Destiny’s Child song about it. He’s up there like: ‘You’ve got your mortgage, your car payment, your roof needs to be replaced. Man, I’d be stressed if I was you!’”
