Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, took aim at Elon Musk during his Monday (7) monologue, after the billionaire and X owner made an awkward appearance at a Donald Trump rally over the weekend. Musk went viral for his enthusiastic jumping on stage, which quickly became meme fodder.
“Elon Musk has ups,” Stewart joked, as he played the clip of Musk bouncing around the stage. When the clip ended, Stewart burst out laughing alongside the audience, saying, “He’s acting like a guy who won a radio contest. ‘Oh, I can’t believe I get to bid on the washer-dryer!’”
But Stewart didn’t stop there. He also highlighted Musk’s claim of being “not just MAGA, but dark MAGA,” mocking the phrase. “I didn’t know it came in flavors,” Stewart quipped. “I wonder if for the holidays, they’ll come out with a peppermint bark MAGA.”
On a more serious note, Stewart focused on Musk’s speech, where the billionaire accused Democrats of being the “anti-free speech party.” Stewart was not convinced, particularly after discussing Trump’s desire to sue the creators of the new movie The Apprentice earlier in the monologue. “It’s not free speech if only Trump’s admirers get to do it without consequence,” Stewart argued.
Stewart took particular issue with Musk’s comment on the Second Amendment. During the rally, Musk claimed, “The Second Amendment is there to ensure that we have the First Amendment.” Stewart quickly refuted this idea, saying, “The guns don’t protect our free speech. Our free speech is protected by the consent of the governed laid out through the Constitution. It’s not based on the threat of violence.”
He continued, “Guns, from what I can tell, seem to mostly protect the speech of the people holding the gun. It’s a tool of intimidation. It is a tool of intimidation and one that I think is actually being irresponsibly and recklessly invoked because some people in your crowd thought they might have been shadowbanned by Facebook.”
Stewart ended his critique by referencing the rally’s location, Butler, Pennsylvania. “The whole reason you’re there is because some f—ing asshole with an AR-15 tried to permanently litigate his vision of this country’s ‘free speech.’ That’s why you’re there,” he said, addressing the controversial use of guns in political discourse.
