John Oliver: Nothing will change in White House until Trump is gone

John Oliver isn’t convinced very much will change now that Steve Bannon has left the White House.

As the Last Week Tonight host noted, Bannon is just the latest key White House figure to leave since Trump’s inauguration — a fact shown no better than in a picture of Trump and his staff taken just after the president was sworn in earlier this year. In the photo, which has since gone viral, Trump is surrounded by Bannon, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Only Vice President Mike Pence remains employed by the White House.

“The truly depressing thing about Bannon’s departure is just how utterly unsatisfying it actually is. Because, yes, one panderer to white nationalists has left the White House. The problem is, the one he was working for is still very much there,” Oliver said, showing Trump.

The HBO host then went back through Trump’s latest bad week, which included the president claiming there were “very fine people” marching with the white nationalists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month.

“No, they weren’t, and I’ll tell you why: because if you are marching with white nationalists you are, by definition, not a very nice person,” Oliver said. “Let me put it this way: If Malala Yousafzai had taken part in that rally, you’d have to say, ‘OK, I guess Malala sucks now. I’m confused. I don’t know why she’s there. But Malala sucks, that’s the only conclusion you can draw.'”

Trump’s remarks were widely condemned, even by some Republicans. As Oliver noted, however, only “around 54” out of 292 Republican members of Congress called out the president by name. “And the problem with not mentioning him is that suggests that he is somehow not a key part of the problem here,” Oliver said.

Many called this week a turning point for Trump, but not Oliver. “We’re not so much turning anymore as spinning. We are basically on a carousel that will not stop. We’ve vomited so much there’s nothing left to throw up. And there’s just no way to get off because an unstable, race-baiting carny is operating the controls,” he said before citing the Trump photo. “We’re probably going to go through a lot more before Republicans ever decide to do anything. Because the hard truth here is that nothing is really going to change in the White House until one more person in that White House finally gets shown the f—ing door.”