Stephen Colbert slams Donald Trump's delayed healthcare plans: 'At least come up with a fresh lie!'

Colbert has mocked the idea that people might be asked to wait until after the 2020 election to get new healthcare coverage

Stephen Colbert has criticised Donald Trump's delayed healthcare plans after the president said he wanted to postpone his proposed reform until after the 2020 election.

The late night host urged Mr Trump to “at least come up with a fresh lie!” in a blistering segment on his show Tuesday (2 April) night.

Colbert cited a series of tweets sent out by the president earlier in the week, making fun of Mr Trump for mentioning Americans’ “beloved” private health insurance, and roasting him for an apparent typo resulting in the words “Great HealtCare [sic]".

The host posited that Mr Trump might use the apparent error as a “technicality” in the future, for example by insisting that he had promised to fix “healtcare” and to provide access to the best “dotors”.

He then mocked the idea that people might be asked to wait until after the 2020 election to get new healthcare coverage, stating sarcastically: “Tell your diabetes to sit tight in your pancreases until... some later time, and I promise you or your next of kin will love it!”

A reel of Mr Trump’s 2017 campaign promises, in which he pledged to build a new healthcare system, played before Colbert pointed out the irony in hearing the president repeating the same promises two years later.

“At least come up with a fresh lie!” Colbert urged Mr Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, in reference to Mr Trump’s proposed replacement of the Affordable Care Act, that he had “made it clear” to the president that “we were not going to be doing that in the Senate”.

Mr Trump claimed it was his idea to switch course, and that he wanted to focus on healthcare reform “after the election”.