Following a week-long hiatus, Stephen Colbert returned to The Late Show Monday night for his first show of the Trump administration. The host wasted no time sharing his thoughts on the president’s first week in office, delivering a scathing opening monologue addressing the controversial orders Trump has issued since his inauguration.
“You’ve got to give the guy credit. He can really get a lot of stuff undone,” he said. “From Obamacare to climate change to torture, he’s already moved the country back to 2004. If this keeps up, pretty soon I’m going to launch the Colbert Report…He is the Usain Bolt of executive orders.”
However, it was Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon’s likening of Trump voters to “working-class hobbits” that really got diehard Lord of the Rings fan Colbert worked up. “You might be the dark media genius behind the biggest electoral upset in American history. You might be playing footsie with neo-Nazis,” he seethed. “But now we’re talking Tolkien.”
Watch the full clip below.
More Must-Reads From TIME
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- The Revolution of Yulia Navalnaya
- 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
- What's the Deal With the Bitcoin Halving?
- If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column
- The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet
- Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com