Jon Stewart intimates Trump is anti-Semitic
Mocking Americans who wonder how the reality TV star was elected president, former ‘Daily Show’ host asks, ‘Have you met us?’
Former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart blasted Donald Trump during an appearance in New York, appearing to intimate the US president is an anti-Semite.
Reacting to Trump’s comments on the August 11 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, in which the president likened the neo-Nazis who marched there to left-wing anti-fascist activists, Stewart joked, “I don’t think everybody who likes him is a Nazi, but everybody who is a Nazi sure does seem to like him.”
Stewart who is Jewish, was speaking Thursday while appearing at fellow comedian Dave Chappelle’s Radio City Music Hall show.
He took particular issue with Trump’s claim that “there are two sides to every story,” referring to the Virginia violence that climaxed when a neo-Nazi plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
“There are two sides? Motherfucker? Two sides! I believe they are called the Allied powers and the Axis powers, and we used to be with the Allied powers,” Stewart shouted irately.
I promise you that I'm much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz – I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2013
Stewart indicated he has long viewed Trump as a racist. The former comedian went on to retell the story of a fight the president picked with him on Twitter in April 2013, in which Trump denigrated the Jewish comedian and brought up his birth-name, Jonathan Leibowitz.
“So he tweeted, ‘if Jon Leibowitz is so above it all, why did he change his name,?’ Basically saying to people, ‘just so you know, he’s a Jew,'” Stewart said to a laughing crowd.
“So basically it goes back to an old white supremacist trope, which is, ‘Jews amongst us,'” Stewart added. “And one of them has a show on Comedy Central. How about that?”
The New York native, who frequently raises his heritage in TV appearances, explained that the name change had to do with “some issues” he had with his father.
"Did you know Donald Trump's birth name is F**kface Von Clownstick? … That's all over Twitter… I hope." http://t.co/C4Rropggqr
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 2, 2013
Stewart then told the crowd what he eventually tweeted in response: “Did you know Donald Trump’s real name is Fuckface Von Clownstick?”
In the original Twitter feud, the future commander and chief called Stewart a “pussy.”
“The point is, people keep saying to me… How did we elect Donald Trump president of the United States?,” Stewart continued. “And my feeling is, have you met us?”
@caaataclysm Little Jon Stewart(?) Is a pussy, he would be hopeless in a debate with me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2013
Stewart had also made clear in February that he isn’t sure Trump loves the Jews.
Visiting Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” from his “farm,” he called Trump out for lying about the murder rate and the size of his electoral college victory.
But Stewart’s “favorite” Trump falsehood came when the president shut down a Jewish reporter’s question about anti-Semitism. At a press conference earlier that month, Ami magazine’s Jake Turx had asked Trump a question about a perceived rise in anti-Semitic acts, whereupon Trump interrupted him, accused him of lying and told him to sit down.
Trump then said, “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”
Stewart’s response? “I don’t think that’s true,” he said in an old-world Yiddish accent, after staring uneasily at the camera and scratching his neck.
“He said that to a guy wearing a yarmulke,” Stewart continued. “Donald, you’re not even the least anti-Semitic person in the clip we showed.”
JTA contributed to this report.
