Jon Stewart on Trump's Assertion of Not Knowing About His Own MRI: 'It's Not Physically Possible'.
Comedy show hosts this week trained their comedic fire on former President Donald Trump, criticizing his use of an derogatory term and portrayed as unconvincing attempts to address public concerns about his mental fitness.
Jon Stewart's Scathing Critique
Kicking off the week, Jon Stewart took aim at a inflammatory Truth Social message in which Trump referred to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz with a highly offensive ableist term. "On the holiday?!" Stewart remarked. "Are you confusing that with your own personal grievance airing day?"
When questioned by reporters if he felt any remorse, Trump is said to have doubled down, stating there was "a genuine problem" with the governor.
"The issue is with him? With him?" Stewart retorted. "You sat with your family at Thanksgiving, stomach full of turkey and pie, enveloped in the love of your extended crime family, but your first thought was to post an insult at Tim Walz? And there’s something wrong with him?"
The host then addressed Trump's bizarre explanation of a recently revealed medical scan. In an effort to dismiss concerns, Trump stated he had "no idea" what part of his body was even scanned, remarking it "wasn’t the brain" because he "took a cognitive test."
"That’s not physically possible," Stewart shot back. "To have no idea, it’s not possible. What would you say to the doctor? ‘No no no, don’t tell me. I want to find out at my MRI reveal party.’"
He continued, "Good grief, man, were you not curious at all? When they laid you down in a tube for a half an hour, you didn’t want to know what they might be doing? Or did you just think to yourself, ‘What a loud tanning bed’?"
Stewart also mocked Trump's boast of a "flawless result" on the scan. "Apparently, that's the way they score the MRIs," he joked. "You either get a big stamp, ‘Perfect,’ or you get in red ink, ‘We need to talk.’"
The Late Show's Witty Observations
On his own program, Stephen Colbert pointed out growing discontent among some one-time allies. "Certain supporters are starting to notice that Trump views them like meat animals," he said, referencing criticism over building a luxury ballroom over tackling economic issues.
"Elsewhere, Trump celebrated Thanksgiving in his customary fashion – with racism," Colbert quipped, referring to an anti-immigrant rant from the weekend. "Somewhere in all of that nonsense," he summarized, the president also used the ableist slur against Governor Walz.
After Walz challenged him to "Make the scan public," Trump said he would release them, despite his claimed ignorance of what was scanned.
"Well, here's an idea: maybe the part that’s broken is the part that’s meant to retain that information," Colbert noted.
He then mocked the subsequent White House justification—a medical note stating the MRI was for routine evaluation. "OK, fair enough," Colbert conceded. "People his age also benefit from retiring, so … can we write that prescription next?"
Jimmy Kimmel's Blunt Assessment
Jimmy Kimmel also blasted Trump's choice of words. "Look, he is capable of being presidential when he wants to be!" he joked. "It's puzzling why he didn’t get that Nobel peace prize. It defies all logic."
Regarding Trump's follow-up comment that he thinks "there is a problem" with Walz, Kimmel was blunt: "yet another profound insight from the president of the middle school."
Kimmel also addressed Trump's insistence of record-high approval ratings. "This indicates it’s not just books he can’t read," Kimmel said, pointing to polling showing high negative ratings. "There are gas station bathrooms on Yelp with better reviews than Donald Trump right now."
The host finished by highlighting Trump's promise to grant clemency to a convicted former Honduran president. "Critics have noted the unbelievable hypocrisy of Trump taking a hard line in one instance, while at the same time freeing a man who shipped a million pounds of cocaine to this country," said Kimmel. "Such individuals are just detractors, you know? Relax!"
"When he was running, Trump made it very clear: his key goals were a) pardoning drug kingpins and b) constructing a venue to ballroom dance," he added. "Commitments stated, promises kept."