James Corden’s ‘One Day More’ Leads Late-Night TV Response to Trump’s Last Day

For four years, the presidency of Donald Trump has demanded almost constant attention from the news media, moving and pivoting faster and more unpredictably than any administration in the history of U.S. politics.

It’s also proven a dominant force in popular culture, becoming an almost omnipresent topic across late-night television. But on Tuesday, the hosts were able to let out a collective sigh of relief that they could finally talk about something else — well, after one last round of jokes!

James Corden put together the most ambitious response on the final day of the Trump presidency, launching a Broadway star-studded parody of the classic Les Misérables song “One Day More.”

For the “Late Late Show” host, this day was a celebration that this was the last day he’d ever have to deliver a monologue with Trump as the sitting president of the United States of America. Come what may, at least he knows this to be true.

“Last day of Trump jokes,” he said to the security guard as he entered the building to kick off the number.

“The final day of Trump as president / The White House has a new resident,” Corden sang to kick off an ambitious rewrite of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway staple. Along the way, he was joined by more than a few Broadway stars, with a few brilliantly playing MAGA supporters.

The whole thing was beautifully produced and put together, with Corden quite literally shutting off the voice of Donald Trump in the final moment. Time to start queuing up the Biden jokes?

Check out how the rest of late-night reacted to Trump’s final 24 hours in office below:

“It’s the day before the day we’ve been waiting for, because tonight is the last show we’ll do during the presidency of he who shall remain shameless,” said Stephen Colbert to kick off his jubilant monologue.

He then jokingly showed himself from Trump’s inauguration saying, “We’ve got four interesting years ahead of us.” Tonight, again broadcasting from his office amid the ongoing Covid pandemic, he countered that statement, saying, “I might have undersold that just a bit.”

He then ran through a list of Trump highlights(?), including cozying up to dictators and the MyPillow guy, as well as painfully destroying any joy that anyone still had for Village People’s “YMCA.”

He also showed that he and his team had literally been counting down every single day until the end of Trump’s term with lighted up numbers on the ceiling of the Ed Sullivan theater, a fun little Easter egg for anyone in attendance — back when that was still a thing.

“In the end, the takeaway of this presidency is take him away,” Colbert joked.

Jimmy Fallon avoided sliding in the Trump talk quagmire longer than anyone else. But as the nation grew more and more obsessed with what was going on in the White House — and Colbert surpassed him in the ratings — even Fallon had to give in.

Finally, he was able to celebrate the chance to try and get back to the type of inane and silly television he seemed to enjoy making more.

“I don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna feel like,” he said. “Probably like that moment when they pull that nasal swab out of your nose.”

He then cracked jokes about the sterile black fencing around the White House (“those are just some of Melania’s old Christmas decorations”) and compared the Trumps to the relatives you stare at late in the night on Thanksgiving just thinking, “Go home!”

“It’s the end of an error!” said Jimmy Kimmel to kick off his own take on Trump’s last day in office, where he admitted to mixed emotions. “It feels like my wedding and my divorce all rolled up into one.”

Kimmel also talked about Trump’s farewell speech where he wished the incoming administration luck — but mostly touted his own accomplishments — without once mentioning President-elect Joe Biden by name.

“He thinks if he doesn’t say his name he won’t appear,” said Kimmel. “He’s Beetle-Joe or something.”

Kimmel then decided to take a look at Trump’s claim in the speech that he did what he set out to do in his presidency, “and so much more,” by taking a look back at his campaign promises and comparing them to where things stand today.

In a “Trump Report Card,” he took a look at Trump’s top issues like repealing and replacing Obamacare, the border wall, infrastructure funding, not having time to play golf, bringing back manufacturing, no social security cuts (he tried), investigate Hillary Clinton, close internet where ISIS lurks and his later promise Covid would disappear one day.

“Don’t forget he created the Space Force,” Kimmel added. “And hopefully tomorrow at noon he will board a Space Force craft and rocket to Mars, never to be seen or heard from again.”

Finally, Kimmel pulled out his crystal ball to take a look at what the future holds for key figures from the Trump family and administration (past and present) … with some truly surprising outcomes.

Seth Meyers made it clear at the top of his “Closer Look” at Trump’s last day that they wouldn’t be taking too deep of a dive into his 20-minute farewell speech, he would “briefly touch on the over-arching message because of how absurd it is.”

Of Trump’s claim that he did what he came to the White House to do “and so much more,” Meyers asked him directly, “Are you insane?”

“You left the nation in ruins,” he continued. “What did you come here to do? Wreck the economy, spread disease and take selfies with cans of beans like you just ate ice cream with a cavity?”

He then said that the Trump administration’s inaugural efforts to try and substantiate a lie that he had the largest crowd ever at his inauguration (he did not) was a prelude of how the administration would be run.

“The entire federal bureaucracy was dragged into defending a narcissistic president’s delusion and anyone who refused to support the lie was punished,” he said.

This, he said has resulted in Trump lying about things that mattered more, like saying Covid would just “disappear one day” or calling the election a fraud so vehemently that it helped spur an attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“Trump will go down in history as a disgraced con artist who left the country in ruins, he’s less popular than Bush (II), he’s broken more laws than Nixon, he’s got a worse jobs record than Hoover and he leans like a house blown over in a storm that Jimmy Carter would have to fix.”

Like a classic 1980s film, Conan O’Brien decided to wrap up four years of Donald Trump with a dramatic montage looking ahead into the futures of the colorful cast of characters.

“A majority of the country is happy to see him leave, that is true,” said O’Brien. “The fact remains that we did have a four-year relationship with President Trump and we got to know the people in his administration pretty well.”

So what better way to say goodbye to the longest political movie of all time than by exploring the futures of folks like Rudy Giuliani, Ivanka Trump, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and even the “shaman” guy with horns at the U.S. Capitol siege.

And, of course, Donald Trump himself, who apparently “continued to get impeached every year on his birthday” — and that was one of the least dark outcomes.

Here’s hoping the next movie is a little less action-packed.

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