Comedian Michael Ian Black: Trump's star isn't an anti-Semitic 'dog whistle' — it's a 'marching band'
Michael Ian Black appears on the "Nightly Show" (Photo: Screen capture)

Michael Ian Black joined "Nightly Show" host Larry Wilmore for the panel discussion at the end of the show Tuesday. Black's new book, A Children’s First Book of Trump, takes a scientific approach to describe a plump, orange-haired critter, while rhyming in Dr. Seuss style. But it was Trump's recent meme of opponent Hillary Clinton using the Star of David that Black perfectly described.


"Nightly Show" correspondent Ricky Velez insisted that Trump wasn't even that good at being an anti-Semite because Clinton isn't Jewish. "At least put Bernie on it," Valez joked. Anti-Semites have targeted Clinton for being aligned with Jewish people, supporting Israel and for taking money from Jews to get elected. In their world, this makes her Jewish by association.

Black, who is Jewish, explained that it doesn't matter if Trump is an anti-Semite or a racist because he's "blowing the shofar, which is the horn that we Jews blow, we blow horns. And he's assembling the Jew haters and assembling the white supremacists."

Wilmore interjected to say that it is a "dog whistle," but Black disagreed. "No, it's a marching band, it's not a dog whistle. It is the full orchestra."

To Black, it doesn’t matter how Trump is categorized, but Wilmore interjected, "I have to disagree with you there, because it does matter if you're an anti-Semite. It matters huge if you're an anti-Semite and you want to be president of the United States."

"We've had presidents who have hated Jews," Black said, insisting he wasn't advocating for Trump.

"Yes, but we don't want to keep doing that!" Wilmore exclaimed.

"I'm saying, what he says is more important to me than what is in his heart," Black continued.

Earlier in the show, Wilmore addressed Trump's latest flub, saying that all Trump needed to do was lay low and "shut up" but with one tweet he went straight to anti-Semitism. When it came to Trump's excuse of a "sheriff's star," Wilmore called BS.

"So, Israel is just a country of sheriffs trying to keep law and order in the rootinest, tootinest Middle East," Wilmore said. He continued showing the clip of Trump's social media staffer who used the excuse that it was the star on Microsoft Shapes. "I can see why people picked 'giant meteor' for president."

Check out the videos below:

Michael Ian Black - skip to the 7 minute mark:

Wilmore on Trump's Twitter: