Donald Trump is the king of cheesy, belligerent nicknames – “Crooked” Hillary, “Rocketman,” “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd” – but former host of The Daily Show Jon Stewart may have just invented the perfect nickname for the president.
Former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart said in a recent wide-ranging interview with The New York Times Magazine that President Trump believes himself to be immune from consequences, likening him to a “malevolent Mr. Magoo.”https://t.co/LLDoW4imKt
— Facts Check (@factscheck_) June 16, 2020
There are so many areas Stewart could have gone in for the new nickname (there’s certainly enough ridiculousness around Trump to choose from), but his name was perfect.
In an interview with The New York Times, Stewart said:
‘He’s like a malevolent Mr. Magoo. He always knows the I-beam is going to swing down and the building is going to collapse — but who cares, because he’ll walk out unscathed. That’s what he has learned.’
Stewart’s voice has been an influential one in the U.S. since The Daily Show began twenty-four years ago. For those of us still adjusting to election years without Stewart’s coverage, the comedian and activist said that he doesn’t miss speaking out on his show and that activism has replaced his chosen way to make his voice heard.
‘Action is conversation, and I’ve taken more action in the last four or five years than I ever have in my life. Sometimes that action can speak more profoundly than a daily monologue. So I don’t view myself as being out of the conversation: I view myself as not having a show. And if you’re asking, Do you wish you had a show? Sometimes I do. But not the one that I had.’
The interview with The New York Times did not focus on President Trump, but covered a wide range of topics. Stewart had much to say about the current protests by Black Lives Matter groups demanding a complete dismantling of the current system of policing. Stewart says that what has become seen as a radical idea is really just a start.
‘There’s not a white person out there who would want to be treated like even a successful black person in this country. And if we don’t address the why of that treatment, the how is just window dressing. The policing is an issue, but it’s the least of it. We use the police as surrogates to quarantine these racial and economic inequalities so that we don’t have to deal with them.’
Jon Stewart: "In the same way that Trump’s recklessness is born out of experience, so is my optimism, because good people outweigh [expletive] people. By a long shot." https://t.co/4DlfWtgu4J
— Josh Sternberg (@joshsternberg) June 15, 2020
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
