Jon Stewart has been left flabbergasted by Donald Trump’s offer to sell American weapons to China while Beijing has been sending weapons to Iran.
The Daily Show host took on the topic on Monday night in a monologue about the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington. The White House called the three-day trip a “reciprocal state visit.”
Stewart played news clips dropping the bombshell that China has been sending weapons to Iran while it fights a war with the U.S. Not only did the topic not appear to come up between the two presidents during the state visit, but U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Trump offered to sell America’s own weapons to China.
“How does America even stay on the map sometimes? I don’t even. How do we not just slide into the sea?” Stewart said. “All right, I had to have misheard that. I got to hear it from the president himself.”
The show then cut to a clip of Trump denying that he made the offer. He then suggested China probably would like to buy weapons from the U.S., though, “because we do make better equipment.”
“He totally f---ing offered them weapons!” a shocked Stewart said.
The moment came after the late-night host spent the opening of his monologue ribbing how Trump hosted Xi. “Last week, a young man by the name of Donald Trump picked up a young man by the name of Xi Jinping, Chinese president, at the airport for a pivotal three-day visit to Washington,” he said.
As with any monumental meeting of superpowers, with profound repercussions for global safety and stability, he joked, it began with a “House Tour.” The show then cut to news video of Trump pointing at various areas of the White House.
“Trump spent most of Xi’s White House visit just pointing at s--t, while Xi did his best effort to pretend to be impressed,” Stewart said. “Although I’m sure they talked about issues of national importance.”
The show then cut to Trump talking to reporters. “We had a great meeting, and he has great interest in granite,” the president said.
“Does he? Does he love good granite?” Stewart asked. He argued that Xi was probably not blown away by American stonework. “Like President Trump, I’m sure you’re proud of your new circular granite helicopter parking spot, but just so you know, this is Shenzhen, China. They’ve got a fully autonomous magnetic levitation train. Pretty sure he’s not blown away by carved rock in the shape of a circle.”
Stewart also went after the ballroom. He said Trump surely understands “the seriousness of the competition between our two nations” and would not undermine America’s national security. “I mean, national security is the whole reason we’re paying $600 million for this ballroom, right? So you’ll keep that behind the curtain, yeah?” he said.
Not exactly. Trump invited the Chinese delegation “through that beautiful curtain,” making them the first people to set foot in the ballroom. “Maybe Trump’s just trying to sell Xi Jinping on renting the ballroom out for his next big function,” Stewart joked.
