Trevor Noah on Trump vs. Greta: Like F.D.R. Bullying Shirley Temple

President Spars With Teenager

On Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel commended President Trump for not responding snarkily to the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg’s being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. On Thursday, he had to take that back.

“That good behavior lasted just under 24 hours,” Kimmel said, “because this morning, at 7:22 a.m., he wrote, ‘So ridiculous. Greta must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill, Greta, chill!’”

“Says the sweaty old man who’s mad at a magazine because they didn’t put him on the cover of it.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

“The president of the United States is on Twitter bullying a teenage girl. Just try to imagine any other president doing something like this, huh? Like, imagine F.D.R. doing a fireside chat where he just goes in on Shirley Temple.” — TREVOR NOAH

“Donald Trump has no right to tell anybody to chill, all right? He is the least chill human being of all time. Like, if there’s anyone you wouldn’t want on your meditation app, it’s this guy. Could you imagine him trying? It would be like, ‘Inhale and exhale. Let the air rush into your lungs, like the criminals and rapists swarming across the border coming to take your jobs and kill your parents.” — TREVOR NOAH

“And the fact that Greta Thunberg is a teenager makes this especially insane. I’m old enough to remember a time when everyone at the White House had a full-blown hissy fit because a witness at Trump’s impeachment hearing had the gall to to say the word ‘Barron’ in a completely benign fashion. That time was last Tuesday, by the way.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

The Punchiest Punchlines (Who’s Trolling Whom Edition)

TONIGHT: Luckily, Greta Thunberg is an expert at handling temper tantrums from immature boys. pic.twitter.com/iO03jE9YlZ

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) December 13, 2019

TONIGHT: Luckily, Greta Thunberg is an expert at handling temper tantrums from immature boys. pic.twitter.com/iO03jE9YlZ

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) December 13, 2019

“But this kid Greta is very good. Right after Trump tweeted, she changed her Twitter bio to ‘A teenager working on her anger management problem, currently chilling and watching a good old-fashioned movie with a friend.’ Trump hasn’t been roasted that thoroughly since the last time he locked himself in his tanning bed.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

“She’s 16, so she’s used to handling temper tantrums from immature boys.” — TREVOR NOAH

“That’s how you know that these are strange times. In one room, Trump is going after a 16-year-old on Twitter; in the other room, Melania is talking about the perils of cyberbullying.” — JIMMY FALLON

The Bits Worth Watching

On “Conan,” John Lithgow ruefully recalled the meeting where he talked Tim Burton out of casting him as the Joker in “Batman.”
 

“Seberg” isn’t a biopic — it’s a portrait of a haunted woman, the French New Wave actress Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart), as she’s harassed and surveilled by the F.B.I. in the late 1960s.