The Daily Show host on Trump's Claim of Being Unaware About His Personal MRI: 'That’s Not Physically Possible'.
Comedy show hosts this week trained their comedic fire on former President Donald Trump, criticizing his employment of a ableist slur and portrayed as feeble efforts to address growing questions about his cognitive health.
The Daily Show's Scathing Critique
Beginning his monologue, Jon Stewart took aim at a inflammatory Truth Social message in which Trump referred to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz using a widely condemned slur. "On Thanksgiving?!" Stewart exclaimed. "Did you mix it up with Festivus?"
When asked later if he regretted the remark, Trump is said to have intensified his attack, stating there was "something seriously wrong" with the Democratic governor.
"Something wrong with him? With him?" Stewart retorted. "You sat with your family at Thanksgiving, belly full of turkey and pie, enveloped in the love of your extended crime family, but your initial instinct was to post an insult at Tim Walz? And there’s something wrong with him?"
The comedian then addressed Trump's bizarre explanation of a recently revealed MRI. In an effort to dismiss concerns, Trump claimed he had "zero knowledge" what part of his body was even scanned, suggesting it "couldn't have been his brain" because he "took a cognitive test."
"That is an impossibility," 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 added, "Good grief, man, were you not the least bit interested? 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, ‘This is a noisy tanning bed’?"
Stewart further ridiculed Trump's boast of a "perfect score" on the scan. "That’s how they score the MRIs," he quipped. "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 highlighted growing discontent among some one-time allies. "Maga folks are starting to notice that Trump views them like meat animals," he said, referencing criticism over building a gilded event space over addressing 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 recapped, the president employed the offensive term against Governor Walz.
After Walz challenged him to "Make the scan public," Trump said he would release them, despite his stated unawareness of what was scanned.
"Well, here's an idea: maybe the part that’s broken is the part that’s supposed to know," Colbert suggested.
He then poked fun at the follow-up 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 get that ordered next?"
Kimmel's Direct Criticism
Jimmy Kimmel also blasted Trump's use of the slur. "See, he can be presidential when he wants to be!" he remarked sarcastically. "I wonder 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 eighth grade."
Kimmel also addressed Trump's insistence of record-high approval ratings. "This indicates it’s not just books he can’t read," Kimmel said, noting survey data showing significant disapproval. "You can find gas station bathrooms on Yelp with higher approval ratings than Donald Trump right now."
The host concluded by highlighting Trump's promise to grant clemency to a convicted international drug trafficker. "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) building a place to host formal dances," he added. "Promises made, promises kept."