“I did not think we would get this authoritarian this fast,” Stewart said. “I really didn’t. I’m sorry. Who could’ve known? Maybe if somebody out there had yelled at me on Bluesky about this, I would have known. But no one did, except every day, in all caps.”
Tonight’s Daily Show was a tepid change of pace. Stewart focused on today’s meeting between El Salvador President Nayip Bukele and Trump, in which the presidents chuckled about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the government shipped to El Salvador’s CECOT mega prison without charge. The Supreme Court ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, but the White House didn’t want to, so they’re not. When asked if he would bring this man home, President Bukele joked that he couldn’t “smuggle a terrorist into the United States.” It was a disturbing scene in which two of the world’s most powerful men laughed about sending people to concentration camps, and it finally prompted Stewart to wonder if the U.S. had elected an authoritarian. So he put Trump through the wringer, comparing everybody’s favorite president to other renowned dictators. In Stewart’s newly formed eyeballs, Trump fits the bill. Trump has the gaudy decorations, a sycophantic cabinet to laugh at his jokes and shower him with praise, and doctors who will sign off on his physical fitness, saying the man has an eight-pack.
Stewart’s point did go off the rails at the end, though, as he argued that the deal between authoritarians and their people is that the country has to function. Perhaps he was unsure where to take the information he’s been trying to call “not fascism” for the last few years because the trains do not have to run on time. Trump just has to say the trains are running on time, and his citizens must be scared enough to agree. Either way, we’re sure Stewart will hear all about why he’s wrong on Bluesky.
