“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert said President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have made a mess of their federal layoffs, firing critical workers they’ve had to scramble to rehire.
In one instance, they laid off the federal employees responsible for safeguarding the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile ― then struggled to find those same workers when they tried to hire them back.
“So now we got a bunch of pissed-off people with a lot of time on their hands who know how to build nuclear weapons,” Colbert said.
Then, they accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and are now trying to rehire them as well.
“Thankfully, we all know that Donald Trump is a steady hand in a public health crisis,” Colbert said, then broke out his impression of the president responding to bird flu the way he did to COVID-19: “I tell you what folks, have we tried deep-frying the birds in bleach?”
Colbert spotted an Associated Press report that found federal workers facing budget cuts and layoffs are suffering through “anger, chaos and confusion.”
“Which, coincidentally, are also the Secret Service codenames for Trump, Elon and Don Jr.,” he cracked.
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See more in his Wednesday night monologue: