Lawrence O’Donnell Rips Into ‘Stupid Rich People’ Who Clapped for Trump’s Economic Club Speech: ‘Guy Talking Isn’t the Problem’

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell ripped into the “stupid rich people” who offered former President Donald Trump applause during his speech to the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.

O’Donnell played clips from Trump’s speech on Thursday evening on The Last Word, calling the former president the “stupidest” person who has ever spoken to the Economic Club of New York.

“I know some smart rich people. In fact, I think maybe all the rich people I know are smart. But there’s a lot of stupid rich people, and New York’s stupidest rich people gathered in one room today and proved how stupid they are with reactions like this,” O’Donnell said.

He then rolled a clip of Trump recommending that the next Economic Club meeting happen in Venezuela where he claimed they would all be much safer than they are in New York. Some applauded the idea.

“Now just think about how stupid you have to be to say that. Then think about how stupid you have to be to clap for that. Joe Biden is president of the United States now. Kamala Harris is vice president of the United States now. They are in power now, and the Economic Club of New York is not having its meeting in Caracas,” O’Donnell said.

The anchor noted most everyone in that room works and lives in “complete safety” in New York City and slammed them as “stupid rich people” for clapping at the line.

“The New York Economic Club is not a club of economists. It’s mostly Wall Street types who don’t have a graduate degree in anything, who have never produced anything, and who have spent their lives massaging money, and every one of them has gotten much, much richer during the four years of the Biden-Harris administration,” O’Donnell said.

He also blasted Trump’s “jumble of words” answer to a question on child care. During a short Q&A session, Trump was asked about making child care more affordable and he gave a two minute answer that went in a number of different directions. O’Donnell played and reacted to the clip on his show.

Trump’s answer:

Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down — you know, I was, somebody — we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that — because the childcare is childcare — there’s something, you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to — but they’ll get used to it very quickly — and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us; but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including childcare, that it’s going to take care — we’re going to have, I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country because I have to stay with childcare. I want to stay with childcare. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about — including growth — but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as childcare is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about “Make America Great Again.” We have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it. Thank you.

“That guy talking isn’t the problem,” O’Donnell said after the clip. “It’s those people clapping that have brought this country to this crisis point.”

Watch above via MSNBC.