I'm starting my monologue in today's episode. Daily Show, John Stewart turned to his recently renewed contractthanking the fans for their support, as well as for the Los Angeles Dodgers' triumph over the Toronto Blue Jays, joking about America's greatest “enemy” – Canada.
Similar to: John Oliver last nightpolitical comedian went straight into the president Donald Trump's The Great Gatsby— a themed party amid what will soon become a hunger crisis as tens of millions of Americans lose their food stamps. (The administration has since agreed to partially fund SNAP using reserve resources.)
“He didn't work for the American people. He was just some Hollywood Babylon crap that shows once and for all that Donald Trump doesn't even care about looking like he gives a damn. In general,” he said.
Stewart continued, “On the very night that SNAP benefits ran out, Trump dropped a Gatsby-themed ode to decadence and hedonism that even Jeffrey Epstein would have thought was a little over the top.”
Addressing the slogan “The Small Batch Never Killed Nobody,” Stewart exclaimed, “Did you even read The Great Gatsby? Spoiler: the party killed someone! Two someones! How do you not know this?
The comedian concluded, “This president seems to be going out of his way to let struggling Americans know that He things are going very well. Your insurance premiums may go up, tariffs may shut down your small business, you may lose food aid, but you'll be okay because Donald Trump is building a ballroom that looks like the inside of Marie Antoinette's vagina.” (Stewart said last week that the 90,000-square-foot development represents Trump hopes to remain in the White House for the “long term.”)
Addressing one segment of the far-right network Newsmax's coverage of the SNAP funding expiration, which featured exclusively videos from black social media users and depicted anchors leaning heavily on racist stereotypes, Stewart commented: “Subtle, with the B-roll you used and the verbiage. I mean, you guys could be referring to any of the 40-something million who use food stamps… to get a benefit or subscribe to BET+ or people—I don’t know, just people who have People’s History Month, I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Concluding her monologue, Stewart donned a shawl to illustrate the irony of Trump's aid to Argentina, which includes importing beef into the country amid cuts to the SNAP program, playing out a version Fiddler on the Roof entitled “The Hungry Fiddler: Too Weak to Climb the Roof” with a short cameo by Michael Costa.
“Another time on this program we would have illustrated this incongruity with a short play. We would probably have John Oliver come out dressed, perhaps, as Oliver Twist. We would have done a whole performance in which he implores the President: [With accent] – Please, sir, I would like some more beef. Argentine beef. Oh, and John will use his fake English accent. John from Fort Lee. But obviously we can't do that; John and I work different days a week,” he said.
