Jon Stewart was stunned by the news that President Donald Trump is accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the Qatar royal family.
“What?” Stewart said in his monologue Monday, responding to a news clip detailing how the $400 million jet would be transferred to Trump’s presidential library foundation before he leaves office in 2029.
“Qatar is giving us a plane that Trump gets to keep. He’s like the reverse Oprah,” Stewart said. Doing an Oprah impression, he joked, “I get a jet! And… that’s it. I get a jet for my library.”
The most appalling part of the story for Stewart, however, was Trump’s explanation for accepting the gift. Showing a clip of Trump saying, “They’re giving us a free jet,” Stewart had a blunt reply:
“It’s not a free jet. That’s the point,” Stewart said. “You know the expression, ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’? That’s about being skeptical of the motives of somebody who gives you a sandwich.”
“A sandwich, a BLT,” he continued. “Now, imagine that that BLT has an engine, nine bathrooms and funds proxy wars.”
Earlier in the monologue, Stewart mocked Trump for accepting this expensive “gift” from Qatar in particular.
“It’s a jet from Qatar, we can trust them,” Stewart joked. “They’re not suspect like Canada, or working to undermine us like all of our other democratic allies in Europe.”
Stewart played a news clip covering how Qatar is considered “an ally of Iran and China and even Hamas.”
“Oh, Trump’s going to take a $400 million jet from people he would expel from Columbia University,” said Stewart.
Stewart also covered Trump’s announcement Sunday that he would be reducing pharmaceutical prices “by 30% to 80%.” Stewart was supportive of the idea, although he was confused by the way Trump talked about it in a press conference Monday.
He showed a clip of the conference, where Trump credited the policy to a conversation he had with a “neurotic, seriously overweight” friend of his. Trump said his friend was taking “the fat shot,” referring to Ozempic, adding that he thought it “wasn’t working” for his friend.
“That is ice cold,” Stewart joked. “This poor guy, he’s just catching strays in the middle of a presidential press conference.”
Stewart later added, “Right now his poor friend is at home going, ‘Don’t look at me!’”
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