“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart mocked President Donald Trump’s claim he could serve a third term using certain “methods” – joking that past methods to stay in power involved catapults.
During an interview with NBC News over the weekend, Trump confirmed that one such method would be to push Vice President JD Vance to run for the presidency, and then encourage him to cede control.
He added that there are other methods, but declined to provide examples.
“Yes, there are other methods, and you tried one a few years ago,” Stewart said, seemingly nodding to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
“There are other methods for staying in power when you are legally allowed to be there. Historically, some of them involve catapults,” Stewart continued.
He added that Trump might have “something more creative in mind with the Vance thing” as he nodded to a film poster of the 1997 thriller “Face/Off,” in which characters played by Nicolas Cage and John Travolta undergo face-swapping surgery.
The left-leaning comedian took aim at Trump after the president said he’s “not joking” about the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House.
“I’m sorry – considering the option? What are you, trying to order off-menu from the Constitution?” Stewart said.
“Let’s see, what do you got, two terms here…but can I get animal style?” Stewart joked as he imitated someone reading from a restaurant menu.
Stewart then changed gears to tear into Trump ally Elon Musk, the face of the White House’s cost-cutting committee.
“So aside from the president saying I’m not leaving, is there any other image of the shambolic state of our democracy? Perhaps something that looks like what you might get if you fed the destruction of democracy into an AI meme generator?” Stewart asked.
He then aired clips of Musk wearing a cheese hat and handing out $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters who signed a petition against “activist judges.”
“Oh right, Elon Musk. Okay,” Stewart said.
Earlier this month, Stewart invited the billionaire entrepreneur to appear on “The Daily Show” after Musk said he would agree under one condition: that it air “unedited.”
The two had sparred back-and-forth on X, Musk’s social media platform, after Stewart took aim at DOGE’s cuts during his program.
In one post, Musk called Stewart a “propagandist,” while in another, he said Stewart “used to be more bipartisan.”
Stewart responded: “Again, the guy who custom-made his own dark MAGA hat that he wears to opine in the Oval Office with the president who he spent $270 million to elect thinks I’m just too partisan. I’m really not sure what he thinks bipartisan means.”
