Jon Stewart declares LA "our most flammable city" amid ICE raids

The Daily Show deconstructs the LA ICE raids that have brought more mayhem and police brutality to the city.

By Matt Schimkowitz | June 10, 2025 | 12:17am

Courtesy of Comedy Central

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Over the weekend, President Donald Trump kicked off a new wave of protests against his immigration policies, following ICE’s attempts to sweep up massive numbers of people they presume to be immigrants at Home Depot stores. In some ways, it looks a lot like the George Floyd protests in 2020 that, essentially, ousted him from office. But thanks to increased brain rot, a reliance on AI-powered slop for information gathering, and surging cultural nihilism, he’s back where he left off, sending U.S. military personnel to attack the most dangerous subset of Americans: People who live in cities. After deploying ICE agents to Home Depots in Paramount, CA, Angelenos of all stripes sprang into action with peaceful protests that were escalated by authorities attempting to meet Stephen Miller’s 3,000 arrests a day quota. Trump called in the National Guard to play Candy Crush and sleep on the floor as law enforcement maimed unarmed citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Tax dollars are hard at work, with horse kicks to the head and union leaders behind bars. Los Angeles is again on fire for the second time in less than six months. Now, California Governor Gavin Newsom is daring Trump to arrest him. It’s all going great.

On a new Daily Show, Jon Stewart led the show through the sweeps and the heavy, misguided hand of the Federal Government. Though light on substantive commentary this week, Stewart relished taking the perspective of a Waymo betrayed by its riders. Occasionally, an actual news clip is the funniest part of the show, but when they work together, it’s sublime. Footage of Waymo self-driving cars ordered to protests for incineration purposes as Stewart yelled, “Tell my Roomba I love her!” is what the world needs right now. Still, Stewart’s main point is that these aren’t the gang members that Trump ran on deporting, but rather the honest, hardworking immigrants who help communities flourish. He comes off as naive, but he needed to set up his Stephen Miller “deport” bit somehow.

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Stewart broke the monologue into two parts, connecting the federal government’s occupation of an American city to what he believes the skirmish is distracting from. Following a Jordan Klepper patio decor intermission, Stewart returned to declare the ICE raids a distraction from Trump’s break-up with Elon Musk. In short, he believes that the sweeps were to stop the news from focusing on Musk saying that Trump is in the Epstein files in a since-deleted X post. We’re not so convinced that’s the case, considering the administration has been ramping up these attacks since January and kicked into high gear last month. Also, Trump’s connection to New York financier Jeff Epstein is hardly news. But maybe the President is tired of hearing his favorite talking heads refer to his spat with Musk as “two alpha males unloading on each other.” Whatever it is, it’s all going very well, and we have a fun and uncertain future to look forward to.