Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon are bemused that Trump has adopted the 'collusion is not a crime' mantra

Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon on Trump and collusion
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Late Show, The Tonight Show)

Stephen Colbert kicked off Tuesday's Late Show with the trial of Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman. "I feel like it's Christmas morning, because all year long, Robert Mueller and his team of legal elves have been busy in their workshop, making all the indictments for all the bad little boys and girls — and the magical day we've all been waiting for is finally here." Colbert ran through the highlights of the first day of Manafort's trial, noting he has reason to be worried. But "one person who's apparently not worried about Robert Mueller's investigation is Donald Trump," he said.

For more than a year, Trump's "catchphrase has been 'no collusion,'" Colbert said. "It's like his 'aloha' — it means both 'hello' and 'I'm guilty.'" But Trump and his team "have recently rebranded, and are using a new phrase that Trump tweeted out this morning: 'Collusion is not a crime,'" he added. "Trump's completely flipped the script on this collusion thing. What's next? He's gonna go from 'This is a witch hunt!' to 'Okay, but I'm good witch, like Glinda, the hot one from The Wizard of Oz.'"

On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon tackled the collusion question in character as Trump, anchoring the Trump News Network. "This morning I tweeted, 'Collusion is not a crime,' and it worked," he said. "Apparently, if you say something's not a crime, then it's not a crime." Fallon's Trump listed some examples, explained why Rudy Giuliani is doing a great job, and moved on to other news. Things got a little weird with the "Bigfoot erotica" story out of Virginia, and you can watch that and the rest of the Fake Newscast below. Peter Weber

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.