Jon Stewart Flummoxed By Trump’s Tariff Flip-Flop: He’s ‘Killing the Hostage and Then Asking for Ransom’
Jon Stewart scratched his head over President Donald Trump’s “killing the hostage and then asking for ransom” policies, including his imposed tariffs.
Stewart was joined by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on The Weekly Show and the comedian wondered why the current administration is in a “rush.”
“Why not try negotiating a trade deal prior to killing the hostage and then asking for ransom? I don’t get it,” Stewart said about Trump pausing most of his tariffs just days after putting them in place.
The president announced a pause this week to tariffs imposed on dozens of countries, though some remain in place including on China, which is now facing a more than 100% tariff.
Stewart also knocked Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for cutting jobs only to later say some of those fired employees would be rehired.
He said:
My favorite was RFK was — he was talking about the huge cuts to health and human services and all the people, and, uh, and how they had to rehire people. He goes, ‘we always knew that 20% of those job cuts were going to be wrong. Part of the plan was always, we were just going to rehired 20% of the people’ and you’re like, what if you took an extra two days? Like, that’s what I can’t figure out. What is the rush? It’s been two months. What about trying to negotiate trade deals prior to killing the hostage and then asking for ransom? I don’t get it.
Buttigieg argued that the “logic” to jumping the gun on issues is to make Trump the “only organizing principle.”
“Then all that matters is which country, which industry, which company got to the man and convinced him or flattered him or whatever it took, got him to give them some mercy,” he said.
Buttigieg called it a “terrible” and “unfair” way to make policy.
“The more it works that way, the more it’s total chaos, except you get to the man, you get the king, right? The more power he personally has,” he said.
Watch above via The Weekly Show.
