Defiant John Oliver Offers Advice on Coping With Trump 2.0

John Oliver stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Monday, this time to share his takeaways from the first month of the second Trump administration.

Although Oliver noted that “there was understandably some eye-rolling of the kind of resistance of 2016,” he argued that the massive protests from liberals throughout the first Trump presidency were a clear net positive.

“There was a really interesting quote that we used [in Oliver’s show last week] from one of the lawyers inside the DOJ, who was fighting some of the travel bans at the time,” Oliver explained. “He said that seeing people occupy those airports, seeing them protest, was really useful to him, in terms of energizing him and also making them feel like they were acting on behalf of the people’s will.”

Oliver continued, “And he said, ‘Activism outside our building helped with the activism inside it,’ and I think that is really important to remember.”

The Last Week Tonight host told viewers, “You can send a message. You don’t have to wait just to vote. It’s valuable sending messages, even if that message is, ‘F--- this s--t.’ It’s sometimes the strongest message to send.”

Colbert then asked Oliver his thoughts about an article from the Daily Beast back in November 2024. The article covered Oliver’s plea to America to not re-elect Donald Trump, with the header, "Teary-Eyed John Oliver Begs Reluctant Voters to Back Kamala Harris."

Oliver, however, lightheartedly insisted that he did not cry.

“I was not teary-eyed at all,“ Oliver said. ”Again, I’m British. I’m dead inside, so I don’t express emotions positively or negatively.”

Colbert also asked him about a September 2024 New York Times article which described Oliver as “Working Through the Rage."

“I think I’m so inexpressive, people can just project emotions onto me,” Oliver joked. “I think I’m like a Muppet. Like, I don’t really emulate, and so you can think, ‘Oh, he’s angry now, or sad,’ and I’m probably none of those things. I’m not good enough as an actor to conjure up plausible emotions.”

Colbert also brought up how Oliver became an official U.S. citizen in 2020, and asked him if he planned to “stick it out” for the next four years of Trump or return to England.

“Oh, no, I’m sticking it out,” Oliver replied. “I’m going down with the Titanic.”