On the latest episode of The Daily ShowJon Stewart took aim at Donald Trump's recent visit to China, where the US leader gushed over President Xi Jinping. “As we all know nobody, and I mean nobody, is as tough on China, rhymes with vagina, than Donald J. Trump,” Stewart quipped. “He's like a bull in a China shop.”
After claiming that he is, in fact, tough on China, Trump proceeded to fawn over the country's leader, going so far as to call him “my friend.”
“Take that President Xi,” Stewart responded. “He's the only leader with the balls to come to your house and say right to your face, 'Who's better than you? No one!' …That's okay. There's a lot of ways to negotiate. Sometimes you get more flies with honey. So what did you get Mr. President? Trade barriers down? Help with Iran? Some of them delicious rare Earth metals?”
Instead, Trump claimed the most important thing he got was a “relationship.” “So nothing?” Stewart asked. “You got nothing! You flew to China. What is it, 400 million miles? I don't know how far it is to China. It's far! You flew there to personally confront our rival superpower on the escalating trade and geopolitical tensions between us, and all you came back with was his Instagram? 'The tariffs are in place, but we're on the Close Friends story now!'”
He added, “You might be watching this and wondering, 'How the fuck is this guy our president? How? How is this possible?' He should not have this job and yet he does.”
Elsewhere in his monologue, Stewart offered some advice to recent graduates, suggesting that we can glean some wisdom from Trump himself. After playing several clips of Trump speaking about his intelligence, Stewart reminded young people of the best approach to a job interview. “I cannot stress this enough,” he said. “Make your answer cocky and super fucking weird.”
Trump held a series of meetings with Xi in China last week. The White House characterized the negotiations as a “good meeting,” with productive dialogues on international trade and the war in Iran. Trump managed to get in a few lines about the issues that he really cares about: fast food restaurants. “Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast foods in the United States — all combined,” the president marveled. “That's a pretty big statement.”
