Jon Stewart has mocked Republicans for being “so chill” about Donald Trump’s aggressive global tariff agenda which has wiped trillions from markets around the world.
The Daily Show host criticized the Trump administration for downplaying the consequences of his so-called “Liberation Day” levies in another wild day of ups and downs on the U.S. stock market Monday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by less than a percent, but the Nasdaq rallied by 0.1 percent.
The comedian played a montage of several Trump supporters who appeared unphased by stocks sliding around the globe.
“When did the right become so chill? Aren’t you the ‘Bud Light’s turning my kids trans’ folks? But economic meltdown you’re getting all philosophical?,” Stewart probed. “And I know you go, ‘Well, it’s going to be with it to get the character of the country that we want back again.’ But you have no f***ing idea if that’s actually going to happen.”
The late-night host also took a swipe at Trump’s attempts to brush off large-scale Wall Street sell-offs last week which saw the president brand his tariff regime “medicine” on Sunday.
It followed the president unveiling his blanket 10 percent tariffs that would be imposed on all nations — bar Russia — Wednesday afternoon. About 60 countries deemed the “worst offenders” face vastly higher reciprocal levies with China being threatened with an additional 50 percent tariff Tuesday after it imposed a 34 percent reciprocal tariff on U.S. imports last week.
“You’re all acting like the tariff regime is a tried-and-true remedy. Oh, of course, this is the medicine that’s always prescribed. Except the last time it was tried 100 years ago, we had a Great Depression.
Stewart also commented on a newly-coined Trump phrase: a “Panican.” The president posted on Truth Social Monday morning urging people to not be a Panican over stocks sliding, which he described as “a new party based on Weak and Stupid people.”
“Panican?” Stewart said. “The genius who gave us classics like ‘Sleepy Joe’ and ‘Crooked Hillary’ just s**t out ‘you’re a Panican?’”
He added: “How about ‘Hysterocrats?’ ‘Repussicans?’ How about ‘Cryontologists?’ Did the overseas factory you had been sourcing your nicknames from get shut down during the tariff war?”
Stewart tore apart other responses made by Trump over the panic surrounding declining stock markets, showing a screenshot of the president’s Truth Social post on Friday declaring that “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL.”
“Your economic policy has the same tagline as season three of Squid Game?” he teased. “It’s supposed to make us feel better? ‘Only the weak shall die in my economy.’”
The comedian concluded by playing news reports about the day after Trump’s “Liberation Day” which saw Wall Street’s largest one-day decline since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
“Financial destruction not seen since the pandemic. And this time, there’s no controversy over how it all started. There’s no wet mark. You, Trump, released the contagion. It’s your lab leak and it’s right out in the open.”
