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John Oliver never passes up a pop culture moment, especially if it’s trending on his own network. On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, the host seized on the buzz around The White Lotus Season 3 finale—complete with murder, mystery, and, yes, incest—to go after Donald Trump and also his own network, HBO.
While analyzing the GOP fixation on keeping trans athletes out of sports, Oliver played a video of Trump discussing the issue, during which the former president could not stop commenting on the women’s physical appearances standing behind him. Trump mentioned that his speech could “end his political career,” while embarking on the kind of tangent objectification that’s become the norm for him.
To be completely fair to Trump,” Oliver went on, “his understanding of women’s issues is on a par with his understanding of foreign policy, domestic policy, trade, the economy, the concept of consent, human empathy, and all but one of his children’s names.”
Then Oliver changed direction. “Trump brings to every conversation a psychosexual energy that makes The White Lotus look like the Teletubbies.”.
That set up his next punch: “Oh, I’m sorry, did the incest storyline bother you?” he said, referring to the controversial Season 3 plot twist involving Patrick Schwarzenegger’s character. “Donald Trump joked about dating his own daughter on The View. He said that on a f—ing morning show.”
Oliver didn’t hesitate to go after his own network, either. “At least The White Lotus has the decency to air in the evenings—right here on the incest network,” he deadpanned, cutting to a montage of HBO’s Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, both infamous for taboo family romances.
This was not the only fire Oliver faced that night. J.K. Rowling also criticized him for his defense of trans rights on the same episode, faulting him for “motivated reasoning.” Oliver responded, saying he did not have any regrets over anything he said and joked, “It feels weird to receive that much heat from the writer of Harry Potter, especially when I resemble what would’ve been the result if they’d kept him in the cupboard under the stairs his entire life.”
In typical Oliver fashion, it was equal parts culture roast, political commentary, and meta jokes about the network that signs his paycheck.
