Last Week Tonight host John Oliver was on his game Sunday night with a devastating take-down of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump's "stupid f*cking" plans to build a wall along the U.S. and Mexico border.
While Trump's campaign has been big on bluster and bullying, the candidate has been an empty suit when it comes to details about his campaign promises. Having said that, one of the central promises of the billionaire businessman's campaign has been to build a wall along the southern border which appeals to his xenophobic fans.
“The border wall is one of the few policy proposals Trump has talked about in detail, so instead of mocking or dismissing it out of hand, tonight let’s take a serious proposal by a serious presidential candidate seriously,” began Oliver.
Depending upon when you catch a Trump speech, the wall will cost anywhere from from $4 billion to $12 billion, which Oliver points out is still not even close to the real costs
According to Oliver, the real cost of just constructing the wall is in the neighborhood of $24 billion -- and that doesn't even count continuing maintenance costs.
“The Congressional Budget Office estimates that wall maintenance costs will exceed the initial construction costs within seven years,” explained Oliver. "It's a big, dumb thing that only gets more expensive over time. It’s like getting a pet walrus: you think it’s stupid now, but wait until you learn what a bucket of sea cucumbers costs. You’ve not prepared for that!”
Noting that costs of building the wall works out to $77 for every man, woman and child in the U.S., Oliver had another suggestion on what to use those dollars for -- waffle irons.
“If the main thing it’s going to get us is a warm sense of satisfaction inside, I suggest that instead of building the wall, we use the money to buy every man, woman and child in America a Palmer Waffle Iron,” Oliver offered. “These beauties retail at $75 apiece, so we’d still have nearly $1 billion left over. This waffle iron plan will cost less, will do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs, it won’t harm our relationship with our third-largest trading partner, if it is racist it’s only toward Belgians. And unlike Donald Trump’s wall, this makes f*cking waffles.”
“Come on, America!” he continued. “Let’s ask ourselves what kind of country do we want to wake up to? One that spends billions on an impossible, impractical symbol of fear, or one that smells like breakfast?”
Watch below via YouTube:
