By Brian Niemietz

New York Daily News

Comedian and late-night talk show host John Oliver can’t believe the branding opportunity President Trump missed out on by dismissing face masks.

The funnyman opened his Sunday night HBO show “Last Week Tonight” this week by mocking Vice President Pence for a recent press briefing where he spoke about measures being taken to limit the spread of coronavirus. Pence reportedly failed to mention during his speech that the medical community has concluded that wearing masks limits transmission.

“Honestly, this was a missed opportunity for them,” Oliver said. “You could have printed ‘Make America Great Again’ on a billion red masks and dropped them out of helicopters and people would have worn them.”

President Trump’s reelection campaign famously prints that slogan on t-shirts, caps and other merchandise. Prior to going into politics in 2016, Trump profited by loaning his own name to real estate developments as well as a vodka brand, a steak company, a board game and an allegedly fraudulent university. According to Oliver, it’s disappointing that the administration isn’t capitalizing on the pandemic that critics blame their mismanagement for adding to spread. “You’re not even capitalizing on a national disaster correctly, you f ——g idiots,” Oliver charged Sunday night.

After riding the Make America Great Again slogan to victory in 2016, President Trump switched gears and introduced “Keep America Great” as his 2020 motto. That became less popular as the economy plummeted, unemployment numbers spiked and the out-of-control pandemic continued killing Americans. The vice president changed his tune during a Sunday appearance in Dallas where he conceded wearing masks is “a good idea.”