Jon Stewart has never been shy about where he stands politically.
But his latest appearance on *The Late Show* left a lot of people doing a double-take.
Because Stewart went on national television and just proved Trump right in the most unbelievable way,
The Send-Off That Said the Quiet Part Loud
Stewart appeared on *The Late Show with Stephen Colbert* this week as part of the show’s final run before CBS pulls the plug for good on Thursday. Colbert has hosted a parade of guests in his final weeks, including fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver, plus former President Barack Obama.
President Trump had declared that CBS canceled Colbert because Colbert stopped being a comedian and became an unfunny, Trump-hating scold.
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in reaction to the news CBS was ending Colbert’s run.
Stewart came on Tuesday, and he had things to say.
He opened by praising Colbert as one of his favorite people, which was genuinely warm. Then he pivoted. Stewart said that “the ubiquitous bloviating of the commander-in-chief has put us all as defined as who we are in opposition to him,” and dismissed the whole framing as “ridiculous.” He called the Trump focus “a minute portion of the joy machine that you call your show” and added, “it’s annoying.”
Fair enough. Except what came next made that argument pretty hard to take seriously.
Stewart told the audience to close their eyes and dream of the day “the electorate in this great nation we call home repudiates this putrid administration.” He promised that when that day comes, “there will be a joyful noise from the bowels of this great country that will make Hungary’s repudiation of Orban look like an Amish Sabbath.”
The crowd went wild.
So to recap: late-night’s obsession with opposing Trump is ridiculous framing. Also, please dream with me about the glorious day America throws this putrid administration out on its ear. Got it.
The Part They Didn’t Put on TV
Worth noting — that particular stretch of the interview didn’t actually air on the live broadcast. It ran in the extended version posted to Colbert’s YouTube channel. So the show that supposedly isn’t defined by anti-Trump content quietly buried the most anti-Trump segment of the night on the internet instead of putting it on CBS.
Make of that what you will.
The Bigger Picture Nobody Wants to Talk About
Stewart’s word games aside, the real story here is what’s happening to late-night broadly. CBS announced last summer that *The Late Show* would end its run after Colbert called a $16 million settlement Paramount paid to resolve President Trump’s lawsuit over a *60 Minutes* interview a “big fat bribe.” The Paramount-Skydance merger — an $8 billion deal — was awaiting federal approval at the time, and CBS pulled the plug on Colbert’s show just days before that approval came through.
Colbert himself called it what it looked like. CBS called it a financial decision.
And now Stewart, the man who spent years turning *The Daily Show* into a nightly referendum on Republican politics, wants everyone to believe the whole genre is really just a “joy machine” that happens to mention Trump occasionally. The timing of that argument — delivered during the farewell tour of a show that got canceled in circumstances tied directly to its host’s criticism of Trump — is something else.
Stewart also took a shot at CBS itself during the appearance, sarcastically praising the network’s decision to cancel the show, gut its evening news, and reduce *60 Minutes* to what he called “like six good ones.” He hosts *The Daily Show* on Comedy Central, which means he’s now the last man standing in late-night under the Paramount Skydance umbrella. Colbert even pointed that out directly, telling Stewart, “This coming Monday, you’re going to be the only one in late night for the CBS Paramount Skydance Corporation.”
Stewart quipped back: “Here’s the only saving grace that I think that I have is that I don’t think Trump has cable.”
Funny line. But it also tells you everything. The assumption baked into the joke is that Trump’s attention is the threat — that the only reason Stewart is safe is that the President might not be watching. That’s not someone who thinks his show is a “joy machine” with a tiny Trump footnote. That’s someone who knows exactly what his show is and who it’s aimed at.
What It All Adds Up To
Late-night TV has spent the better part of a decade turning itself into a left-wing political operation with a laugh track. The ratings have suffered for it as the audience fled in droves. And now one of the flagship shows in that genre is going dark, with a cancellation story that’s tangled up in corporate mergers, presidential lawsuits, and a $16 million settlement that Colbert himself refused to stay quiet about.
Stewart calling that “ridiculous framing” while simultaneously dreaming out loud about the day America repudiates the “putrid administration” isn’t a contradiction he seems to notice. Or maybe he does notice and just doesn’t care. Either way, the audience in that studio ate it up.
*The Late Show with Stephen Colbert* airs its final episode tongiht on CBS. Stewart continues hosting *The Daily Show* on Comedy Central on Monday nights.
Sources: Fox News, Mediaite, Yahoo Entertainment/NJ.com, The Mirror US, HuffPost, Washington Times, CNN Business, Recorder Online