John Oliver broke his avowed silence regarding Donald Trump’s presidential run last month (and how) with an extended Last Week Tonight episode dedicated to the DayGlo-hued candidate. Although he described Trump as the “back mole” America really needs to get checked out one of these days, Oliver also had to acknowledge the blowhard’s entertainment value (something The A.V. Club shared a few thoughts about as well). But when the host touched on the would-be builder’s appeal for the citizenry weary of the party establishment, he also tried to snap them out of it. Having traced Trump’s surname back to its dull Drumpf roots, Oliver launched an initiative to “Make Donald Drumpf Again.”
The rebranding campaign has reached yuuuuge levels, selling out hats emblazoned with the message and even landing Jay-Z’s support. And according to CNN Money, the “Make Donald Drumpf Again” video is the most popular Last Week Tonight clip ever, with 85 million YouTube and Facebook views combined. A HBO spokesman told CNN Money that “this is a record for any piece of HBO content,” though he didn’t elaborate on whether it was more popular than the average Game Of Thrones episode. Now it’s just a matter of time until Trump trademarks “The Trump Bump” or asks for some kind of writing credit for the segment (those Jon Stewart tweets didn’t write themselves), though we suppose it’s entirely possible he’ll just wave off the news with his tiny hands.
