Seth Meyers Jokes That Trump Could Abolish Term Limits: ‘There Can Be No Escape. All Hail Our Powerful and Benevolent Supreme Leader’
by Selome Hailu · VarietySeth Meyers is worried about more than just Donald Trump’s second term.
“Well, Donald Trump has won the 2024 election and he’ll be president again for four more years, or eight, or 12, or whatever,” he said with a worried laugh while opening his first “Closer Look” segment after Election Day. “We live in an infinite time where Donald Trump has always been and will always be the center of the universe. There can be no escape. All hail our powerful and benevolent supreme leader.”
Meyers was joking, of course, as the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as president — though Trump did once a post a video online that edited a Time magazine cover to depict himself running for office indefinitely into the future.
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Continuing the bit, Meyers said, “Windmills do cause cancer. Hannibal Lecter was a lovely man. And if I’m lying, then Arnold Palmer doesn’t have the biggest dick in the clubhouse. Fuck me!”
After continuing to roast Trump — noting that he is both the oldest person ever elected president and the first convicted felon, and making fun of his victory speech — Meyers shifted his focus to some of the president-elect’s supporters.
“If RFK Jr. becomes becomes the health secretary, does that mean his brain worm will become assistant secretary?” Meyers asked, referencing the parasitic worm Kennedy discussed during his own presidential campaign that he said “ate a portion of his brain.” Meyers continued: “Oh, will the worm give press conferences? Tiny little podium on the top RFK’s head?”
Elon Musk, the billionaire behind Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter-turned-X, was the next subject of Meyers’ ire.
“They want you to think they’re just edgelord podcasters, but they’re not. They’re oligarchs,” he said.” The richest man alive — whose company contracts with the Pentagon, and who owns one of the largest social media platforms — has teamed up with a billionaire who will soon be the most powerful man in the world for a second time to consolidate their power over society and the economy. They’re not your bros. They’re not gonna come over to your house and smoke weed and play Diablo with you.”
Meyers didn’t mince words about his fears for the years ahead. “Donald Trump has been very clear about what he will do when he returns to power: military style roundups of migrants, using the power of the state to crush his opponents and pursue his grievances, eliminating the Department of Education, letting climate change run rampant, spreading conspiracy theories about health care and vaccines,” he said. “He said he would be dictator on day one.”
But the “Late Night” host tried to close the segment with a message of hope: “The question now is, what will the rest of us be doing on day one? If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who said no to Trump’s dark, dangerous vision for America last night, now is the time to stand in solidarity with our friends, with our neighbors, with the vulnerable communities, and begin the hard work of making real the world we want to live in. That’s what we will be doing on day one. We do hope you’ll join us. The clock is ticking.”
See Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment below.