Jon Stewart mocked President Trump’s attempt to distract his MAGA clan from the Epstein files debacle in a savage takedown Monday night.
Since last week, many of the president’s supporters have been raging against Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, after a leaked memo stated that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had “no incriminating client list.”
“If you know Trump, he can always just pivot to the classic Trump distraction – throw something outlandish out there and watch the dogs chase the squirrel,” Stewart said during Monday’s The Daily Show, citing Trump’s previous claims he would “invade Greenland” and “bomb Iran.”
The Daily Show host accused Trump of reigniting his years-old feud with comedian Rosie O’Donnell to distract enraged loyalists from the Epstein debacle following last Monday’s revelation.
“MAGA is losing their s*** right now,” Stewart says before mocking the president. “They’re finally understanding what it’s like to be the target of his hostility.”
Earlier in the show, the talk show host played a clip of Trump scolding reporters while sitting at a White House cabinet meeting alongside Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable,” Trump says.
Stewart jibes at the president’s comments, saying: “Unbelievable? You guys ran on it.
“Remember this?” Stewart digs before playing a clip of Vice President JD Vance saying, “We need to release the Epstein list – that is an important thing,” in a podcast interview with Theo Von in October 2024.
He then plays a clip of FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino formerly speaking on his eponymous podcast saying, “This Epstein sex ring operation – I’m not letting it go ever. Ever.”
FBI Director Kash Patel told podcast host Benny Johnson last year, “Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are.”
Stewart, who looks dumbfounded by the historic clips, asks: “Why would you have to change your pants to let us know who the pedophiles are?”
Both Patel and Bongino were the subject of speculation last week that they would resign due to the fallout from the leaked memo.
When asked about Epstein in a podcast interview with host Lex Fridman in September 2024, Trump said: “I'm not involved. I never went to his island, fortunately. But a lot of people did.
“A lot of big people went to that island, but fortunately, I was not one of them.” When Fridman asked whether the list would be made public, Trump said, “Probably will be by the way. Probably. I'd certainly take a look at it.”
Months later, after Trump took his seat in the White House, Bondi released more than 100 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, even though much of the information was already publicly available.
The Daily Show host noted that the Epstein case has ignited a fresh wave of backlash from MAGA supporters against the president himself.
“MAGA world, for the first time in memory, isn’t just slavishly acquiescing to Trump’s reality distortion field,” he says.
Bondi became the subject of intense scrutiny last week after the FBI and the Department of Justice claimed there was “no incriminating client list” found to belong to Epstein – but Stewart, like others, including Democratic strategist David Axelrod, feels that Trump is to blame.
“So Trump had to go back and kill the backlash, perhaps, even making it look like a suicide,” Stewart scoffs before highlighting a Truth post from Trump that boldly accused Democratic predecessors of “writing” the Epstein files.
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