While most news outlets have focused on Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments during Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, Jon Stewart zoomed in on another, more pressing part of the Trump campaign: his anti-immigration rhetoric. Specifically, “The Daily Show” host went in on Trump’s mass deportation plan.
Trump has said that if he’s elected, on “day one” he will begin deporting people from the United States. In various interviews, the former president has also said that the number of people he plans to deport ranges from “2 million” to “21 million at least.”
On Monday night, Stewart assured his audience that Trump probably had a “very detailed and precise plan” for his mass deportation. He then systematically broke down all the reasons why that isn’t the case at all.
“We’re only deporting people who have come here illegally. Or people who have come here legally but sneaky legally. Or people who have children who are actually citizens. Or some people who may look like they may have come here illegally. Or people who have protested the war in Gaza,” Stewart said, flashing an image of a news story about Trump saying he will deport anti-Israel protestors.
“Or a special prosecutor that Trump doesn’t like,” Stewart continued, showing an image of special counsel Jack Smith.
To further prove his point, Stewart then dove into history.
“Maybe we’re just going to be deporting the people who always bring ‘wretchedness and want.’ Oh, I’m sorry. That’s how we described the Irish in 1832,” Stewart continued. “Or maybe we’re just going to deport people whose race inherently has a certain kind of criminality. Oh, I’m sorry. That was the Italians in 1911.
“The point is every one of these groups was at a place and time on the wrong side of not being American enough. And right now you think you’re safe, cause the group Trump’s talking about, it’s not you,” he said.
Stewart also dove into Trump’s recent statements that he will use the 1798 Alien Act in his mass deportation plan. The Alien Friends Act of 1798 allow the president to imprison and deport non-citizens, while the Alien Enemies Act gives the president additional powers to detain non-citizens during times of war. Most famously, the Alien Enemies act was used by President Roosevelt to imprison Japanese-Americans in internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
“Who the f–k told Donald Trump about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798? Because I’m going to bet you something. He did not come to the meeting and go, ‘Hey, why don’t we use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act?’” Stewart half-yelled at his studio audience. “He’s not a history buff.”
The late night host also argued that Trump has a historically bad track record of telling people apart, “especially when it comes to people of color.” To back up that claim, Stewart pointed to the time Trump mistook former California State Senate member Nate Holden for former Speaker of the California State Assembly Willie Brown. He also said that Trump “can’t tell white people apart either,” pointing to the time Trump mistook E. Jean Carroll, the journalist who sued Trump and won for defamation and battery, with his ex-wife ex-wife Marla Maples.
“It just makes me very sad,” Stewart said.
That’s when he was joined by former “Daily Show” correspondent Jessica Williams, who assured him, “Don’t be sad, Jon. Everything’s going to be OK … for you. A rich, old white guy,” Williams said. “For non-old white people, for people of color and women and queer people, it’s going to be a completely different story.” Watch the full monologue above.
