Jon Stewart is speaking out against Donald Trump — again.
The former Daily Show host and frequent Trump critic shared his thoughts about the president’s anti-media rhetoric. While speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a joint interview with fellow comedian Dave Chappelle, Stewart said that he believes Trump tricks journalists into covering him by appealing to their “own narcissism.”
“I think that journalists have taken it personally,” said Stewart. “They are personally wounded and offended by this man. He baits them. What he’s done well, I thought, is appeal to their own narcissism.”
Added the comic: “They take it personally and now he has changed the conversation to not that his policies are silly or not working or any of those other things, it’s all about the fight. He is able to tune out everything else and just get people focused on the fight. And he’s going to win that fight.”
Earlier this year, Stewart lashed out at the president for his controversial “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which forced thousands of children to be separated from their parents and detained in what critics have likened to concentration camp-style facilities.
During his interview with Amanpour, Stewart slammed Trump’s xenophobic approach to handling immigration in the United States.
“I’m watching the midterms, man, you would think our country is Mad Max Thunderdome,” he said. “This guy is like, ‘They’re coming from Guatemala. They’re coming from Mexico. There’s a liberal mob that’s coming. Muslims.’ And you would think everybody in the country’s just like, ‘To the bunker!'”
Stewart hosted The Daily Show until he stepped away from the Comedy Central program in June 2015; Trump announced his presidential run earlier that month. Though Stewart once joked that Trump’s candidacy was a “gift from heaven” because all of the comedic material it would provide, the comedian said that he should have taken the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host more seriously.
For his part, Chappelle said that while America seems more divided than ever under Trump’s administration, POTUS gets “too much credit” for the current state of social unrest in the States.
“I would not even name the era after him…. He’s not making the wave, he’s surfing it,” Chappelle said in part. “All he does is sing those people’s greatest hits. ‘Build the Wall,’ all these things we’ve heard before, he just sings all the songs. He’s the only one that’s been brash enough to do it.”
Watch part of Stewart and Chappelle’s interview below.
