John Oliver calls out Donald Trump over plan to tackle opioid crisis

'Trump’s fix essentially boils down to: here’s two pennies, go throw them in a f**king mall fountain'

John Oliver presenting Last Week TonighT (HBO)

“I know, right now, all anyone can think about is the reported indictments coming from Robert Mueller – please let it be Jarrod!”

While John Oliver may have opened the weekend’s episode of Last Week Tonight poking fun at the upcoming Mueller revelations, the host went on to discuss a widely controversial topic: America’s opioid crisis.

Donald Trump made tackling the ongoing problem — 140 people die every day from opioid abuse — one of his central campaign promises.

“It’s really, really easy not to take ‘em,” Trump said during a recent speech on opioids. “And I think that’s going to end up being our most important thing. Really tough, really great, really big advertising—so we get to people before they start.”

“So an ad campaign,” Oliver quipped. “It is important not to start abusing opioids. But that doesn’t really help people already struggling with addiction.

“It’s kind of like seeing someone neck-deep in quicksand and then putting up a ‘Don’t Do Quicksand’ sign. Also, the whole ad blitz strategy has famously been tried and failed with Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say No’ campaign.”

Oliver then played a clip of the President telling children to not take drugs, making them swear an oath to “never take drugs”, adding to restrain themselves from drinking too much alcohol.

The host then said, while it’s good Trump has been paying attention to the opioid crisis “attention is pretty much all he’s giving it.” He continued: “Because he didn’t put out a detailed strategy and and his splashiest step, declaring it a public health emergency, doesn’t actually do very much.” Watch the clip below.

Oliver’s best line comes towards the end. After discussing how Trump’s plan lots to only two cents per person, he says: “So Trump’s fix for our opioid epidemic essentially boils down to: Here’s two pennies, go throw them in a f**king mall fountain and wish your addition away.”