HBO late-night host John Oliver has expressed renewed anxiety about President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, despite being a U.S. citizen since 2019. During an interview with Monica Lewinsky on her podcast, Oliver discussed how the stress of being an immigrant has resurfaced as Trump’s administration intensifies deportations of undocumented immigrants. He mentioned that the anxiety he once felt before obtaining citizenship has returned, highlighting the emotional toll of the current immigration climate.
During the latest episode of the podcast ‘Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky,’ Oliver, a U.K. native, mentioned that the stress he felt as an immigrant before gaining his citizenship in 2019 has come back as Trump has increased deportations of illegal immigrants during his second term. He noted that the current situation has brought back the anxiety he thought he had moved past after receiving his citizenship. ‘I have to remind myself now, with all these stories going on… it brings something out of you,’ he said, referencing Trump’s crackdown on immigration. ‘Like it’s there – that anxiety that I thought I’d moved past that day that I got my citizenship. I thought it would be gone then.’
Oliver also reflected on his experiences during his time on Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show,’ where he felt a sense of belonging in America despite not having his citizenship. He described the tension of being an immigrant even with the best possible immigration experience. ‘That immigration experience is tough even if you have the best version of it,’ he said. ‘And there’s no doubt, I had the best version of it. I had like Viacom lawyers at that point when I was with ‘The Daily Show.”
After finally obtaining his U.S. citizenship in 2019, Oliver realized that his immigration status remained a constant thought in his mind. ‘At no point was it not somewhere in my mind,’ he noted. The emotional impact of his past experiences as an immigrant has led him to feel that Trump’s immigration policies ‘feel personal’ to him. ‘It’s one of the things I get really mad about,’ he declared.
Monica Lewinsky, in turn, expressed empathy for those being ‘hunted’ by immigration authorities, drawing a parallel to her own experience of being hounded by the press following her affair with former President Bill Clinton. She described the feeling of being hunted and unsafe, although she acknowledged that her situation was nowhere near as severe as that of current immigrants. ‘Now, for me, the hunting was — the consequences of that — were nowhere near what they’re suffering,’ she said.
The discussion also touched on the impact of Trump’s immigration policies, with Lewinsky expressing concern over the ‘worst of the worst’ being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She criticized the agency, saying, ‘ICE f——.’ The conversation highlighted the broader implications of immigration policies on individuals, even those who are U.S. citizens, and the emotional and psychological effects of living under a heightened immigration enforcement climate.