Jon Stewart finds hope in Zohran Mamdani after deconstructing Trump's ballroom blitz 

It’s no secret that Donald Trump hates this country and its people. Aside from siccing his underachieving shock troops on American cities, he’s also posted AI-generated videos of himself dumping liquid shit on his electorate from a jet christened “King Trump.” As he spends his time stewing and whining that we aren’t thankful enough for the president who made the country more violent, hateful, and expensive, he’s also knocking down the White House to make way for a 90,000 square foot ballroom that our tech overlords are helping to fund. He’s also begun talking much more openly about a third term—though some methods are “too cute” for his liking. On a new Daily Show, Jon Stewart argues that while the ballroom is a good indicator that Trump is gunning for a third term, the fact that he’s already made merch is an even greater tell.

Look, these are not optimistic times. We’ve got a president who hates us, a Speaker of the House who, admittedly, doesn’t seem to know anything (Stewart’s Mike Johnson impression is an all-timer), and an actively hostile administration that’s talking a lot about a third term. We’re in the midst of a government shutdown, which the administration doesn’t seem too keen to end, because why would they? Meanwhile, the most vulnerable Americans across the country will start feeling the effects of a month-long shutdown when food-assistance benefits run out this week. All of that would be bad enough if we weren’t also facing the existential threat of climate change, which, we must say, isn’t going to fix itself. Wouldn’t you know it, we’ve missed another “catastrophic tipping point.” As many have said before, living in interesting times sucks.