John Oliver called out Donald Trump Sunday night for the false promises he made to coal miners during his campaign, and is not confident the President actually understands the occupation.
"He barely gets what mining is,” Oliver said in a lengthy "Last Week Tonight" segment (above). "He may well think it's just running up to things that he wants and yelling 'MINE!'"
The comedian spent a significant amount of his broadcast calling out Trump for an executive order he signed back in March lifting rules against the coal industry previously placed by the Obama administration. The order removed a temporary ban on mining coal on public lands, and Trump claimed it was his first step to "put our miners back to work."
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View StoryOliver flipped to a clip of Trump during a rally he held in Charleston, where he threw a coal mining helmet on his head and pretended to be digging coal with very awkward shoveling motions.
"It is not easy watching someone I doubt has done a day of hard labor in his life show how he thinks coal mining works," Oliver said.
Oliver then went on to call out Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruit, who bragged on NBC's "Meet The Press" that the administration was responsible for adding "almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector" since "the fourth quarter of last year." He even claimed, "In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs."
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View Story“OK, so the only problem there is that those numbers are bullshit,” said Oliver, who cited a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the real increase in coal jobs since 2016 was around 1,300, with only 400 jobs added in May.
"This president clearly doesn't care about [the environment],“ Oliver said. "He pulled out of the Paris Agreement, citing coal as one of the reasons; he's lifted a freeze on new coal leases on public lands; and revoked a rule to limit coal-mining companies from dropping debris into local streams, with miners behind him both times."
"Trump needs to stop lying to coal miners, we all do,” Oliver concluded. "An honest conversation about coal and its miners needs to be had, and we should neither cease or desists from having it."
