This week on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart cautioned Democrats from sounding the fascism alarm at every possible opportunity when it comes to president Donald Trump‘s executive actions in his first 100 days.
Kicking off the segment with news of the tech market’s downturn amid Chinese artificial intelligence competitor DeepSeek, Stewart remarked: “I do know that this is bad news financially, but is anyone else somewhat excited that A.I. had its job replaced by A.I.?”
Moving on to the meat of the night’s subject — Trump’s flurry of orders — the host commented on Friday night’s firing of 17 inspectors general, which members of the news media had dubbed a “purge.” Playing on the descriptor and 2013’s crime-horror thriller of the same name, Stewart wielded a prop axe in mock-terror as he began jamming it repeatedly on his desk.
“That only leaves … no one knows how many left. I have no idea,” he said of the inspectors.
“First law of Trumpodynamics, every action is met with a very-not-equal overreaction, thus throwing off our ability to know when sh– is actually getting real,” he said, following up his statement with a clip of Rachel Maddow’s denunciation of Trump’s actions as “textbook authoritarian takeover 101.” Stewart then lamented, “I knew I should have taken that class and not majored in submissive liberal crying 101.”
When it comes to concerns about our democratic systems, Stewart said the Constitution doesn’t do much by way of safeguarding its people. “For some reason, we have given presidents the power of a king. And then we say, ‘Oh, by the way, with that power, you’re not gonna get all like kingly and sh– on us, right?’ To put that in Constitutional terms, if I could, don’t hate the player, hate the founding fathers.”
He referenced Trump’s Access Hollywood tape and Project 2025, saying that Trump is now “democratically” following through with his aforementioned mandates and governing approach.
“We must be vigilant, but part of vigilance is discernment. Republicans control the House, the Senate, the Executive and the Judiciary and just about every move that has been made ’til this point, we have granted them electorally. It’s our f—ing fault, and the constant drumbeat of encroaching fascism will erode the credibility we will need, if — hopefully if, and not when — it hits,” he stated.
In fact, Stewart said Trump’s “deportation orders are so popular they have collabs,” playing a news segment of a Chicago raid on which TV personality Phil McGraw tagged along. In the clip, the Dr. Phil host questioned the man being apprehended how he knew of him, prompting a mocking rebuttal from Stewart: “Weren’t you in Goodfellas? No! You’re f—ing Dr. Phil. I would know that little egghead anywhere, little-bald-mustache-Southern drawl.”
He continued, with a reference to a popular meme born out of the talk show in 2017, which launched rapper and internet personality Bhad Bhabie’s career: “I guess Dr. Phil finally ‘cashed someone outside.’ How about that?”
In concluding, Stewart urged: “The question should be: What are you learning from this? How would you use this power? What’s your contract with America? Democrats exist outside of him. Tell people what you would do with the power that Trump is yielding, and then convince us to give that power to you as soon as possible. That’s the goal. It’s enough with the ‘He’s a Hitler, he’s a thing, stop doing it, that’s terrible.’ What would you f—ing do?!”
Watch the segment below:
