John Oliver on Trump’s last week: ‘We are supposed to live in a country of checks and balances’

The Last Week Tonight host recapped Trump’s week of authoritarian moves and dug into issues with Medicare Advantage plans John Oliver opened his latest episode of Last Week Tonight with footage of Donald Trump’s partial demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for his $300m, 90,000sq ft gilded ballroom. “Those images are distressing, especially when you know it’s all to build a giant ballroom in a style best described as ‘Med Spa Versailles’,” he said. “And yet, the demolition of the White House, a metaphor that, if anything, is too on the nose, was just the tip of Trump’s iceberg this week.” Oliver also noted Trump’s demand that the justice department pay him $230m as restitution for the legal cases it pursued against him when he left office in 2021 – a demand that would be rubber-stamped by two members of his own cabinet.