Jon Stewart Hits Trump for "Bombing" His Comedy Speech

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1:04Welcome to The Beat. Good to be with you tonight. I'm Ari Melber, and we begin with a war in Iran that is, by any accounts, much longer than Donald Trump promised, and that is triggering a backlash at home in the matters both for foreign policy, for the domestic repercussions that we've all been living through, the gas and high prices, as well as, of course, pressure on the midterms as Republicans seek any daylight between themselves and Donald Trump's unpopular policies at home and abroad. Indeed, if you happen to be with us last night, that's where we started the week, the midterm pressures.

1:36Today was really dramatized in a different manner because the president was meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky as well as Israeli president, or I should say prime minister, formal title over there, Netanyahu. And while Zelensky has had his clashes with Trump and they have kind of repaired a little bit from where they were, the leaders were here in a show of old school diplomacy and solidarity, and they attended the funeral of a Republican senator who, whatever you think of him and his many changes and stitches over the course of his career, Senator Lindsey Graham was, of course, very active on the world stage in foreign policy.

2:14There are plenty of senators who cast a vote here or there and sit out the rest of it. Lindsey Graham saw himself as an ambassador and statesman within his role as senator. He worked with McCain back in the day. He worked with Trump. He was, of course, dealing with the Russia-Ukrainian issues, and he was a longtime hawk. So the gram of it all fits in to the foreign policy we have right now. And with all respect to the senator, and of course, when you have a passing of anyone in public life, there is much talk and much eulogizing about what he did and what he tried to do and how he tried to lead his life, and a lot of it takes on a positive tone.

2:53The other fact, with no disrespect to Senator Graham, is that the kind of hawkishness of starting wars in the Middle East or continuing them on an ongoing basis, of going at Iran, which is something that Graham did support as a policy matter, these are things being tested right now in the Trump agenda. The Oval Office discussions take place as the war in Iran hits six months. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Gas prices, as mentioned, are up. There is still, of course, nuclear material in Iran. There is no view, even from the most pro-MAGA supporters you could find, that would say that this has been a great job, a perfect thing, or they would claim that Trump won the war.

3:33You can't win anything that's not over. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal and other normally Trump-friendly outlets have said he's basically on a path to losing, as you compare it to the metrics that he himself set. Now, there's a familiar part of the news tonight, where I'll tell you that the president is threatening more strikes. And obviously, that's a real thing that you have to take seriously, but it also has an echo of the many past threats. And if you as a observer might tire of this, well, just imagine how it looks around the world, where the U.S. military, of course, can do great damage, but Donald Trump's repeated threats in Iran don't carry the same weight that they did in the first few weeks.

4:09When Trump first announced strikes against Iran, he also told the American public it would be quick. And he was kind of selling a version of Trumpism, that he would get this done fast, get what you want, improve the situation for the American security and geopolitical gas interests abroad, and then come back home with a victory. Like many other Trump promises, for people who still believed him, and that's fewer and fewer people, it might have sounded good, but it didn't happen. We were told weeks or days, not weeks, or very soon. In his second term, we should note that Donald Trump has actually launched strikes in seven different countries.

4:46So he is a long ways from the ongoing peace promise that he would be a peace president. Trump has, of course, now tried, as usual, to run from his own statements to spin them. But there is, of course, video. There are still fact checks in this country.

5:05I didn't guarantee no war. Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruptions, and we will have prosperity and peace for all. No more wars, no more disruptions. We will have prosperity and we will have peace. With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness, and chaos will be over. I don't have wars. We had no wars. I could stop wars with a telephone call. I could stop wars with just a telephone call. if properly stated, it would never start. They said, he will start a war. I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars. He's not going to start a war. He's going to stop wars.

5:53It tells you something about where we are as a country with a muscular military and many past wars and misadventures in the Middle East that this was, from Donald Trump of all people, the popular claim, the thing to sell. Whether you call that dovish, or you just call that realistic, or you call it more isolationist, whatever it was, Donald Trump, the candidate, knew that's where the public was at, including the conservative Republican voting base, and he has won on largely divisive base elections. And yet he went forward, starting the Iran war, launching these other strikes you can see on your screen.

6:30His team now says Trump could even weigh military options in Mali, another place where nobody really wants to get more involved militarily. And so where we begin tonight is the story that matters around the world, the sixth month of a war that Trump said would take weeks, and foreign leaders in the United States, in our capital, of course, marking the measure of a man, a public servant, a senator, but also in a very sort of real physical way, we see leaders of multiple countries looking at the U.S. and its leader, Donald Trump, and wondering, does anyone believe what he says? if his own voters are down to 30 % here as he struggles to have any kind of public support going into these midterms and around the world.

7:15While, again, nobody doubts what the U.S. military can do, they increasingly doubt whether Donald Trump's threats and promises, the carrot and the stick, are worth the seconds it takes him to express them. I want to bring in a noted expert in this field who we've called on about the Middle East and other foreign policy. The ambassador, Dennis Ross, served as a diplomat and peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, also served in the Obama and Bush administrations. Welcome back, Ambassador. I mentioned the sort of in-person spotlight today in Washington because it is on Donald Trump's foreign policy and certainly the open-ended commitment in Iran.

7:57Where do you see the president's challenge and leverage when, as mentioned, few believe him on either side of the border when it comes to a lot of the Iran claims? You know, I think it matters less what you and I may believe. What matters is what do the Iranians believe? The Iranians have been objectively set back in terms of their military capability, but not enough so that they're not in a position where they can hit all their neighbors, especially against vulnerable soft targets. They clearly think that they have won. They now have a lever, a chokehold over an important global chokehold, meaning the Strait of Hormuz.

8:40On February 27th, they did not have that chokehold. From 1988 until February 28th, until a few days after that, they didn't make an effort to block it because Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, understood from the 1988 period when we reflagged ships, that that could produce a direct war with the United States and that could threaten the regime. But I think the big problem for us came not necessarily in terms of carrying out strikes against Iran's military capabilities, but trying to decapitate the regime. When the regime saw that Ali Khamenei, A, was gone, and B, that this seemed to be about regime change, they had nothing to lose.

9:24They didn't make an effort to control the Straits From 1988 until 2026 But when they had nothing to lose They made the decision, okay Let's get control of the Straits Goliboff, who is the negotiator for them The Speaker of the Parliament The former commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force Said just last week The Straits are the equivalent of 10 atomic bombs So they see themselves having a very clear lever. Now, having said that, the blockade is hurting them, for sure. The fact that they, when the president stopped after 12 days of bombings, stopped continuing to carry out strikes, they stopped, in their words, retaliating.

10:10Now, that tells you they do have an interest in bringing this to an end, just as he has an interest in bringing it to an end. But the problem is they want to bring it to an end with them being in control of the Straits of Hormuz. They see that as a potential economic lifeline for a regime that is really in desperate economic straits. And when the war ends, they have to contend with a series of pretty profound inner contradictions. So they want some kind of economic lifeline. But they see the straits as being a lever that they can apply to coerce others politically, economically. I'll jump in to say you're also describing a situation where they were pushed into a corner and they are going to try more severe things than, as you outlined, they even tried for decades.

10:58And Trump doesn't seem to have a move for that because there is no appetite. And I don't even think he could physically do it for very long to have a full ground invasion of Iran. One of the options has always been open the straits. The problem with opening the straits is you can provide convoys for ships, but if you don't take the coastal area in Iran, you don't take some of the small islands in the middle of the straits, even then you have to contend with what might be ballistic missiles and cruise missiles from 1 ,000 kilometers away. It's a pretty difficult thing to do. You might well be able to do it, but it comes at a very high cost.

11:41A less risky approach is keep the blockade on. Sooner or later, this is an economy that is in absolutely terrible shape. The blockade squeezes them even more. The problem is the blockade also means nobody else can export oil, and that means the price of oil goes up. If the president is prepared to truly be strategically patient, he might well be able to outlast them. Their view is they can outlast him. And he's caught in the horns of a dilemma because he wants them to give in. They don't want to give in to him. He can apply force, but what he found. We did 12 days of bombing. And it's pretty clear that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the head of CENTCOM, Admiral Cooper, are both raising questions about the utility of continuing bombing that is the equivalent of those 12 days.

12:36It isn't necessarily saying they wouldn't argue for stronger and more intense application of bombing, but they're basically saying doing what we were doing is not going to be something that produces real returns. The Iranians won't give into that. The irony for me is that if you were prepared to do the blockade for, say, another couple of months, that would put the Iranians in a very difficult position. But I don't think that the president's prepared to wait that long, given the economic cost of doing that. So unless he's prepared to do that, I think you're looking for some sort of face-saving device for us to try to bring this to an end where the Iranians give some kind of fig leaf, but the reality is it doesn't hide that they are controlling the straits in one way or the other.

13:26Right, which would be a step backwards for the U.S. compared to, as you put it, the start of the war. And echoes what the original peace deal looked like, which was trying to give Trump a way to announce at home, this is all done. Well, here we are six months in threats and it doesn't feel done. Ambassador Ross, our leadoff guest on this important story. Thank you, sir. My pleasure. Appreciate it. Tonight, we are also tracking Republican opposition to the Todd Blanche nomination ahead of the vote scheduled for this week. And we have an exclusive look at Rolling Stone's new list of Trump era protest songs.

14:02That's something you'll only see here on The Beat by the end of the hour tonight. But first, I want to show you Jon Stewart, a real comic, showing Donald Trump what was wrong with his attempted comedy with some very serious punchlines. You're going to see that when we return in 90 seconds.

14:24President Trump attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner and ended his speech by putting on a Trump 2028 hat. It was bad enough that he's a bully and a convicted felon, but now he's a prop comic? The only funny part of the jokes was watching the crowd's reactions. It was a melange of confusion, boredom, shock, and at one point, a literal existential crisis.

14:53That's one way one person kind of got through that kind of ineffable Trump speech, which is saying something that you almost don't know what to say about it. But the comics do, because remember, this annual tradition, which many people have pointed out, has perhaps passed its sell-by date, involves a president trying to do comedy. And different presidents have tried it different ways. Trump, by all expert accounts, failed. And many people in the room, who of course are part of a press association that tried to get him to come there, also thought that he failed, that he went over the line, that he was distasteful, but also, and this is the ultimate sin, that he was boring and not funny.

15:36So tonight, while we haven't showed much of the actual Trump speech because it wasn't very newsworthy. I do want to show you now that the comics have come back on the air this week, how they have tapped their own expertise, their knowledge of comedy and punchlines to really rip into Trump stepping on to their turf, if you will. Jon Stewart had plenty to work with. Normally, I'd say don't quit your day job, but in this case, I will make an exception. It's simple. Set up punchline. Or... Cover! It's every Friday night, every Saturday night. We're going to have fights in front of the White House.

16:19But we do have something coming that's... And I'm only kidding. You know, the one thing about... We are going to have Indy 500. Roger Penske's coming in mid-office. Germany, Japan, all these countries. They spent billions and billions of dollars trying to win the Indy 500. On July 4th, we were over at the mall, and it was raining. It was supposed to be really bad again, and we didn't do it the following day, and we didn't do it two weeks later. We did it when we were supposed to do it. It was a fantastic celebration.

16:57You set up the premise, and then you just walk off into the street?

17:05The first problem is obviously the payoff to a punchline can't be four minutes later. Jon Stewart, of course, the ultimate expert on that. But the second point is one that we've seen across many different Trump appearances, which is a rambling kind of off his game, confused, erratic performance. Imagine if Mitch McConnell or Joe Biden took four minutes to get from A to B like you saw there, but in their own style, maybe less voluble than Trump. And people would say, hey, this guy had a really bad night or is he up to the job or what are the aging and health concerns that go along with that? This is bigger than, of course, any one speech or comedy effort coming up short.

17:50Trump is now getting ridiculed at his own rallies, and we've seen the joke turning from stuff that he likes to do, and he's, you know, sassy and telling his jokes, to this impersonator who got into that coveted spot behind him and got a lot of laughs. The poll numbers are dragged down by all of the stories we've been covering this week. On Fox, some hosts even sound a bit weary. The president bet that terrorists would bring American factory jobs back. There's a new report out that says it didn't work. With higher energy costs right now and you drop tariffs in on top of that, you have some real inflationary concern.

18:30The big, beautiful bill, which Trump is talking about on the stump, has a terrible reputation. People don't like it. Even Trump's base doesn't like it. Even the base. And politics is always about more than just the scorecard or the policy record. there is a mood and a vibe and whether it's even cool anymore to stick with this version of Trump. We can show you a UFC fighter talking to a MAGA podcaster. Keep in mind, both of these folks backed Trump as recently as 24. It is kind of crazy, dude, how mainstream, how unpopular Trump is. And we're talking about like hardcore Republicans. And even these guys are like, I just, I can't do anymore, Trump.

19:14I just like, I feel betrayed. The people that have voted you, that rallied around you, like you actively just spit in their face. Blunt, but an assessment many recognize. Democrats now have a double digit lead in what is the generic congressional ballot. Over in Texas, the Democratic candidate is up five points over a handpicked Trump Republican, again, showing that the Trumpier the race, the bigger problem. for Republicans. So is there something larger here? I want to bring in our friend Che Comanduri for a special Che Day right after this break. This is a Monday.com ad. The same Monday.com designed for every team.

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20:48It's a special day on the beat. It is Che Day. Many of you know the day is named after Che Comanduri, the political savant and Obama campaign veteran memorialized in that cartoon. Welcome back, Che. Good to be back, Ari. We had fun watching the comic skewer Donald Trump's failures at comedy, but there seems to be more going on there. And I'm not just saying that as, you know, a journalist on TV looking for an angle. I've seen years where the White House Correspondents Dinner is something we almost completely ignore. But the larger problem he had executing in the speech, communicating, keeping one train of thought, and the larger potential mood in the country, the floor is yours.

21:41Yeah, I mean, you know, Andrew Breitbart said, you know, politics is downstream of culture. And I think, you know, we talk a lot about policy and politics, but I think MAGA and Trump have lost the culture. Put it quite simply, Trump is not cool anymore. And I know a lot of MS viewers may be like, well, when was Trump ever cool? Well, you know, I would say 18 months ago. You know, you remember after he won the election, you had Hollywood stars like Sly Stallone go down to Mar-a-Lago. You had big country music stars like Carrie Underwood associated herself very much with Trump. Morgan Whalen, you know, the stormed off the set of SNL as a sign that he was not down with the woke comedy of Saturday Night Live and wanted to get back to God's country, the places that voted for Trump.

22:33You had athletes doing the Trump dance in football, in UFC. Kristen Pulisic, the U.S. soccer team captain at the time, did it as well. Now nobody's doing the Trump dance. The last time you saw the Trump dance was when Belgium did it after being in the U.S. to mock Trump. You don't see any stars or celebrities or musicians who want to associate themselves with Trump. At his America 250 celebration, he couldn't get anybody to perform. He couldn't even get Milli Vanilli to accept his invitation to be at that America 250 celebration. So it has fallen quite far for Trump. He is no longer seen as cool.

23:18He is no longer seen as ascendant. And the MAGA brand is not seen that way either. I think that makes sense what you're saying. We have the Washington Post here talking about a lack of enthusiasm for Republicans, even among the traditional MAGA base that they see as downright, quote, scary. As you said, downstream from the culture, is this a general mood that he is played out that he didn't just lie to the other guys? You know, politics can be very much a competition that's zero sum and people will excuse certain things on their side. I think when the history is written and you look at the inflection points that actually hurt Trump, Epstein, the war, and of course these prices people have to pay, these are all areas where people aren't saying, oh, I never knew he lied.

24:08I never knew he exaggerated claims about his Democratic opponents, but rather, oh, he rolls like this on you. He's as disloyal to the people who are loyal to him as he is fierce and angry at everyone else. And while you mentioned our viewers, yes, informed news viewers might say, I noticed that with Michael Cohen first year out. I noticed that with a bunch of other stuff. The scattershot has gone so wide now that, as mentioned, the podcasters who don't follow every detail, people who are just kind of looking up and noticing big storylines say, oh, wait, he betrayed them, as that podcaster put it, on everything.

24:46Yeah, I mean, I think what has really happened is Trump to a lot of Americans now just looks like a normal politician whom they dislike. You know, when Trump first burst on the scene, what do people say? Oh, he was authentic. He was refreshing. He spoke his mind. You know, he promised to do things that other politicians would not do. Well, we've had 10 plus years of it. And where has it gotten us? You know, we have an affordability crisis. People cannot afford housing. People cannot afford health care. People cannot afford to make daily meet their daily needs. We have a war in the Middle East caused by Trump.

25:27We have continuing conflict around the globe, all of which Trump has put gasoline on those fires. So Trump now looks just like a normal politician who said what he said to get power and is now breaking all the promises to the people who voted for him. Yeah, it makes sense when you kind of sketch it out clearly. They say you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, Che. Right. But sometimes you need a Che day to see the political winds. That's high Dylan-esque praise, sir. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Appreciate it. Our thanks to Che. We have Dylan on the mind because by the end of the hour, we're going to look at artists confronting big political interests from the old school to Trump today.

26:18There is a new Rolling Stone magazine feature, and we have the special segment on that tonight if you stick around. Next, though, we're going to look at the Republicans who are still making trouble for Donald Trump's attorney general nominee with a vote this week.