John Oliver Presents His Alternative to Trump's Wall

John Oliver ignored Donald Trump for a long time, then devoted a whole show to ridiculing his candidacy. Now he's specifically going after Trump's plans for a big border wall. In the latest episode of his HBO show, Oliver delivered "what might be the most thorough takedown yet" of Trump's idea to keep out immigrants from Mexico, observes Slate. (See the video here.) Among Oliver's arguments, as rounded up by Time and Vox: It would cost about $26 billion, not $4 billion to $12 billion as Trump says; Mexico wouldn't pay for it; the wall would be a nightmare to build and would likely have to be on private property; and it wouldn't work anyway. Oliver's counterproposal: Buy every American a waffle iron.

Says Oliver: "Because this waffle iron plan will cost less, it'll do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs, it won't harm our relationship with our third-largest trading partner, (and) if it is racist it's only toward Belgians ..." (More John Oliver stories.)