--- title: John Oliver Has a Techno Song About Putin for Donald Trump description: The 'Last Week Tonight' host staged the song to remind Trump that being friends with a man like Putin can be a risky proposition canonical: https://time.com/4676207/john-oliver-techno-putin-trump-last-week-tonight/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-20T07:41:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:44:06.208Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: John Oliver Has a Techno Song About Putin for Donald Trump og:description: It warns that being friends with a man like Putin can be a risky proposition og:url: https://time.com/4676207/john-oliver-techno-putin-trump-last-week-tonight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Oliver Has a Techno Song About Putin for Donald Trump twitter:description: It warns that being friends with a man like Putin can be a risky proposition twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # John Oliver Has a Cautionary Song About Vladimir Putin for Donald Trump on _Last Week Tonight_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 20, 2017 7:41 AM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 20, 2017 7:41 AM UTC This week, _Last Week Tonight_ turned its attention to [Russia](http://time.com/4670677/democrats-demand-donald-trump-russia-investigation/?iid=sr-link10), which, John Oliver joked with viewers, is the country that gave us “potentially the 45th President of the United States.” Donald Trump has many [ties to Russia](http://time.com/4433880/donald-trump-ties-to-russia/?iid=sr-link4) and hopes to improve relations with President Vladimir Putin. The [_New York Times_](http://time.com/4671457/trump-russia-intelligence-manafort-campaign/) has even reported that [Trump’s campaign](http://time.com/4426818/donald-trump-julian-assange-vladimir-putin/?iid=sr-link1) had numerous contacts with Russian intelligence during his presidential run and after, which lead to the [resignation of Michael Flynn](http://time.com/4670175/michael-flynn-resign-trump-russia/?iid=sr-link3) as National Security Adviser. As Oliver says, “It’s a bit weird that \[Trump\] has been objectively nicer to [Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4636155/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-russia-dossier/?iid=sr-link3) than to Meryl Streep.” Trump has made no secret of his belief that it would “be nice if we got along with Russia” — to which Oliver counters, “It would be also be nice if you could walk right up to a bear and hug it.” To remind Trump that being friends with a man like Putin can be a risky proposition, Oliver staged a cheesy techno-pop song complete with dancers and a driving beat to drive home the point. Watch it above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4676207/john-oliver-techno-putin-trump-last-week-tonight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4676207/john-oliver-techno-putin-trump-last-week-tonight/"},"headline":"John Oliver Has a Cautionary Song About Vladimir Putin for Donald Trump on Last Week Tonight","datePublished":"2017-02-20T07:41:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:44:06.208Z","description":"It's to remind Trump that being friends with a man like Putin can be a risky proposition","url":"https://time.com/4676207/john-oliver-techno-putin-trump-last-week-tonight/","keywords":["russia","Television","Vladimir Putin","John Oliver","Last Week Tonight","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4676207/john-oliver-techno-putin-trump-last-week-tonight/","name":"John Oliver Has a Cautionary Song About Vladimir Putin for Donald Trump on Last Week Tonight"}}]}] ```