“Daily Show” host Ronny Chieng mocked the Trump administration for its latest corruption scandal, reacting to reports that the president gave out a pardon in exchange for $50 million by joking, “Inflation really is getting bad!”
Chieng kicked things off Wednesday night with a string of jokes made at the expense of Vice President JD Vance. Trump’s second-in-command insisted recently that the entire Trump administration wholeheartedly rejects “pay-for-play” schemes and “anybody getting rich off of their connections to the government.” In response, all Chieng could do was sarcastically laugh.
“Maybe JD is right. When have you seen allegations of corruption in the Trump administration?” he asked. “There was his ambassador to Greece and his crypto deals, his IRS slush fund, his son’s wedding party, his son-in-law’s real estate deals. But those were weeks ago! When have you ever seen corruption allegations this morning?”
That question was met with the latest reports surrounding Venezuelan billionaire Julio Herrera Velutini. The banker reportedly wanted some felony bribery charges wiped from his record, which prompted his family to hire Alina Habba, the lawyer and former legal spokesperson for President Trump. Habba was reportedly paid $50 million for a job at a new company with no public profile. Weeks later, Trump gave Herrera a full and unconditional pardon.
“$50 million for one pardon? Inflation really is getting bad!” Chieng joked. “Wow, what a way to get out of bribery — by doing more bribery. Not a lot of crimes you can do that for.”
In the second half of his Wednesday night monologue, Chieng turned his attention to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose recent plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan were stopped by Trump and other members of his administration. For his part, when asked about Hegseth’s plan, Vance said he would not be watching the execution if it was ultimately livestreamed.
“Wow, what a stance, JD,” Chieng said. “It feels like he’s not even that disgusted that it’s a public execution. He’s more, like, mildly annoyed that he might need to subscribe to a new streaming app. Like, ‘OK, what’s this going to be on? Peacock? Yeah, I’m not watching that.’”
“80% of Americans oppose this,” the comedian continued. “These guys are so inept they found a way to make shooting a terrorist unpopular.”
