Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, Jordan Klepper here and your ears have wandered
Speaker 2: into a special podcast episode where we take.
Speaker 3: You behind the show.
Speaker 2: At the Daily Show, I'm joined virtually by supervising producer
Speaker 2: and segment director Ian Berger today to talk about our
Speaker 2: latest foray into the megalopolis, figuring the polls at Trump's
Speaker 2: second inauguration.
Speaker 1: Ian, Hello, going good, good.
Speaker 4: I'm happy to be home and thought out from that
Speaker 4: frigid weekend. But I think we had a good time.
Speaker 3: It was a cool one.
Speaker 2: I would say in prepping for this piece, a good
Speaker 2: ninety percent of it was discussing layers, how many layers
Speaker 2: we should bring put on, what was appropriate for the
Speaker 2: upcoming apocalyptic freeescape.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we had a few weather strategy meetings that were
Speaker 4: very important, and I think we succeeded so go us.
Speaker 2: People were very scared of this weather, and I will say,
Speaker 2: in retrospect, not as cold as as somebody growing up
Speaker 2: in Michigan.
Speaker 3: This was like a Tuesday.
Speaker 2: It was a regular Tuesday, and it was a It
Speaker 2: was I would say, a June Tuesday in Michigan.
Speaker 4: Which actually brings up a joke you had that I
Speaker 4: don't think made of the cut. But we're like, if
Speaker 4: if Maga and Trump can't weather, you know, fifteen degrees
Speaker 4: in Washington, d C. How is he going to take Greenland.
Speaker 4: I don't think they know that much about Greenland, but
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure they understand as cold.
Speaker 2: We know for a fact they don't know much at
Speaker 2: all about Greenland. We talked significantly about Greenland where it is,
Speaker 2: what it provides, the simple need to have Greenland existed
Speaker 2: out there in the Maga universe. But the temperature that
Speaker 2: the reality of the temperature definitely didn't blame.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they want and they want to make Canada the
Speaker 4: fifty first state. I got news for you that's also cold.
Speaker 2: Yeah, people are their temperature sensitive. I think we also
Speaker 2: positive the idea that it was less a temperature decision
Speaker 2: of the Trump CAMPI part and more we don't want
Speaker 2: to see an audience smaller than Obama's decision. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot of Frankly, there were snowflakes.
Speaker 1: Everywhere, Yes, there were certainly.
Speaker 4: Back you want to tell us about that weekends overall
Speaker 4: compared to the inauguration you went to eight years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know eight years ago. Nobody really knew what
Speaker 2: to expect. There was a lot of shell shocked reactions
Speaker 2: to the Trump administration going into this. I knew it
Speaker 2: was going to be a weekend full of red hats,
Speaker 2: people celebrating, people excited, and we were not disappointed. As
Speaker 2: far as that goes. You enter into Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: And it is on lockdown. I think what we had
Speaker 2: this year because there was such a last minute shift
Speaker 2: in the ceremony, how there was going to be nothing
Speaker 2: out there on the National Mall like it was very
Speaker 2: confusing to travel around Washington, d C. Streets were blocked off,
Speaker 2: nobody knew where to go, what events were taking place,
Speaker 2: and so US as a a production, it was confusing
Speaker 2: navigating that.
Speaker 3: But we kept running into.
Speaker 2: People who were there for the celebration who had no
Speaker 2: idea where to go, what to do, where to stand,
Speaker 2: what to expect.
Speaker 1: If used, but happy it didn't matter.
Speaker 4: They had like you're you're with your people, if you're
Speaker 4: a maga, you know fan, it didn't matter that you
Speaker 4: didn't know where to go. It felt like yeah, it
Speaker 4: felt like people were kind of asking if we knew
Speaker 4: about things or where they should go. But at least
Speaker 4: Trump had a rally the day before, which when we
Speaker 4: were first planning this seemed like, oh, that's a good
Speaker 4: story point because it's kind of crazy to be to
Speaker 4: me to say I'm going to have a rally the
Speaker 4: day before the inauguration, which is basically a rally. So
Speaker 4: but you know, Trump needs attention, so he was doing that.
Speaker 4: But then because things got changed so much, it kind
Speaker 4: of like, I think his you know, his fans were
Speaker 4: really happy that he had this rally because there wasn't necessarily,
Speaker 4: you know, like a lawn event or whatever, a great
Speaker 4: mall event to go to.
Speaker 2: It's in retrospect I understand the need for this rally.
Speaker 3: At first, I was like, this.
Speaker 2: Man just wants nothing but celebrations. But when you have
Speaker 2: to feed the beast that is Kid Rock, placing him
Speaker 2: the day before on stage, Trump was gonna give Kid
Speaker 2: Rock three or four songs to perform inauguration day.
Speaker 3: Hard to slide that in.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't be totally surprising if he did on inauguration
Speaker 2: day sneak Kid Rock in there, but it felt a
Speaker 2: little bit cleaner to have him the day before. It
Speaker 2: really was an event that was like, let's bring everybody
Speaker 2: who has made a lot of noise and created awful
Speaker 2: music and culture wars. Let's put them on stage to
Speaker 2: dance around, and I think the fans were very excited
Speaker 2: to have it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in fact, like one of the lanes we wanted
Speaker 4: to explore it. It was kind of a game we
Speaker 4: had that again did make it into the piece because
Speaker 4: you go out in the world and you find other stuff,
Speaker 4: great stuff. You weren't expecting was that we were treating
Speaker 4: it like it was a destination wedding, but one of
Speaker 4: those like really long destination weddings with too many events,
Speaker 4: and a lot of the MAGA crowd like bought into that.
Speaker 4: They're like, absolutely, it's like a destination wedding.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 4: And I think we even had jokes about like, you know,
Speaker 4: the the gifts for Trump and you know, whether they're
Speaker 4: where they would be seated and whether they'd get invited
Speaker 4: to the Tuesday brunch. But it, you know, it really
Speaker 4: was like a destination wedding because there was parties everywhere,
Speaker 4: and people are drunk during the day and there's a
Speaker 4: lot of outpha changes.
Speaker 2: So one premise that we had walking out was like, oh,
Speaker 2: this does feel like this big weekend, and we started
Speaker 2: joking with people about whether or not they had seen
Speaker 2: the Trump Registry and given to the Trump Registry, and
Speaker 2: perhaps there's no surprise anymore. Everybody, everybody didn't bet an eye,
Speaker 2: like the idea that like, oh, no, one I buy
Speaker 2: a bunch of Trump shit. So I've already I've already
Speaker 2: paid a ton of money to the vendors right around
Speaker 2: here for the newest Trump merge. But secondarily like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: there's there's a tithing to be paid. We've we've already
Speaker 2: gifted to the Care campaign. And we joked with a
Speaker 2: lot of people about like how important it is to
Speaker 2: give money to the Trump campaign because your voice won't
Speaker 2: be heard if you don't give money, and of course,
Speaker 2: the more money you give the lottery, your voice will
Speaker 2: be That as a comedic premise feels sound, but does
Speaker 2: not land as a comedic premise there, it just lands
Speaker 2: as a baseline reality.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's a sad state of affairs for like,
Speaker 4: you know, politics in general in America. But yeah, there
Speaker 4: was no shame in that. We no shame.
Speaker 2: It's again we've talked about it on the show, but
Speaker 2: the implicit is now explicit, and so perhaps we are
Speaker 2: the silly ones to be like, isn't that crazy? They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: you mean bezos and musk and everybody's standing right behind
Speaker 2: Donald trumpety sport it.
Speaker 3: No, that's just America.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I'm gonna talk about some of the things
Speaker 4: like you were surprised to see. I mean, we can
Speaker 4: talk about like the reactions to the J six photos.
Speaker 4: What did you think of that? What were you expecting?
Speaker 1: What? You know? How did play out?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: We we went down there expecting some pardons to come
Speaker 2: down on day one of the new Trump administration, and frankly,
Speaker 2: we've been covering J six since we were there on
Speaker 2: January sixth, and I think the question we had in
Speaker 2: New York was like, what is the line? Is there
Speaker 2: truly a line with the Maga Faithful? So we put
Speaker 2: it out pictures and images from January sixth, people who
Speaker 2: brought a gun, a man who brought a gun and
Speaker 2: shouted outside of January sixth.
Speaker 3: We brought a picture of.
Speaker 2: Him police officers being beaten, and we kind of confronted
Speaker 2: people about like we understand you want quote unquote blanket pardons.
Speaker 2: When you ask the Maga Faithful, like what do you
Speaker 2: think about January six folks?
Speaker 3: You know, to a.
Speaker 2: Person, they all would say like, pardon, and then you'd
Speaker 2: follow up blanket pardons, and most people said.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course, yeah.
Speaker 2: When confronted with the actual images, confronted with what they did,
Speaker 2: a good number of the people we talked to did
Speaker 2: draw a line, did see a police officer getting beaten,
Speaker 2: and say, well, they of course not violent protesters. And
Speaker 2: I think looking back at what Trump did the next day,
Speaker 2: which is essentially pardon everyone and commute the sentences of
Speaker 2: the people who were of violent criminals, the majority of
Speaker 2: the MAGA folks we interacted with did see a line
Speaker 2: and drew the line at violence and attacking cops. And
Speaker 2: there was even one person who was a little ray
Speaker 2: of sunshine who who saw these images of cops being
Speaker 2: attacked beaten and was somewhat horrified and said to us,
Speaker 2: I've never seen these images before. When we asked him
Speaker 2: where he got his media sources, he said it was
Speaker 2: just conservative media.
Speaker 3: He was very open about that and vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Where was this That was January sixth, Yeah, have.
Speaker 3: You not seen his image? No, I have not seen that.
Speaker 1: Seen any of these images.
Speaker 2: Some of them, but not these really maybe the ones
Speaker 2: maybe the media that I'm following, is not is not showing.
Speaker 3: These what it could be?
Speaker 2: It could be what media conservative Did you watch the
Speaker 2: January sixth hearings?
Speaker 3: No, I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is new.
Speaker 3: So that's my fall I should have been better informed.
Speaker 2: Yes, I will say, that's a refreshing thing to hear.
Speaker 2: And we went on to have a conversation beyond what
Speaker 2: is even in the piece where he said he will
Speaker 2: he said he promised to do his own research and
Speaker 2: engage in other media sources. Who knows if that man
Speaker 2: is knee deep in huffing and post right now or not.
Speaker 2: But there was a true openness to him that we
Speaker 2: rarely see at the.
Speaker 1: Trump Yeah, he was.
Speaker 4: He was genuinely concerned looking at those pictures, like concerned
Speaker 4: one for like the victims in those photos, but concerned
Speaker 4: for like the state of the world that he had
Speaker 4: never seen them before and confused by it. And it's
Speaker 4: kind of amazing. And then of course.
Speaker 2: It's it's it does speak to many of the folks
Speaker 2: we show this to. I don't think it's seen many
Speaker 2: of these images their their media diet doesn't show that
Speaker 2: to them, but usually approach it with well, you're.
Speaker 3: Trying to manipulate me what this man showed it.
Speaker 2: Perhaps it's a it's a crack of the wall, it's
Speaker 2: a little bit of the light that's coming through. A
Speaker 2: case for optimism. I don't know how you want to
Speaker 2: frame it, but the Maga Faithful were not defensive when
Speaker 2: it came to these conversations. They've won, they feel you're
Speaker 2: feeling good on cloud night, They're getting what they want,
Speaker 2: and so in that moment, you're like, why did we
Speaker 2: get this person to actually be somewhat reflective.
Speaker 3: It's because the defensiveness has gone.
Speaker 2: He's doing a victory laugh, and perhaps there's an openness
Speaker 2: or at least we saw a moment of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was incredible. It was incredible.
Speaker 4: But and of course there are people who just have
Speaker 4: like blinders on and like their guard up no matter
Speaker 4: what you show them. I think of the guy in
Speaker 4: the hockey jersey. He he went from like kind of
Speaker 4: trying to deny the reality of the photo to just
Speaker 4: admitting that he didn't care. He's like, oh maybe that's Antifa,
Speaker 4: Oh maybe the cops are attacking. And then finally he
Speaker 4: was like, I don't care what you show me, Like truly,
Speaker 4: it is the It is the old line. Trump could
Speaker 4: shoot somebody, It could be on video, and there will
Speaker 4: be people like I don't know, they still seem sorry.
Speaker 2: This guy, this guy with a gun outside the Capitol.
Speaker 3: Should he be pardoned?
Speaker 4: Did he shoot the gun?
Speaker 3: Is that a real gun or was out a fake gun?
Speaker 2: Shot the gun up in the air. Yes, yes, he
Speaker 2: should be because.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you should be.
Speaker 2: Pardon why because I don't think he should be.
Speaker 1: Uh, I don't think he was.
Speaker 2: I think you should be part of What about this
Speaker 2: guy's spraying a bear spray at the police of Defense?
Speaker 3: So pardon. Yeah, that's a tough one. Was that from
Speaker 3: the same day?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's January January sixth, the most photograph crime in
Speaker 2: human history. Yeah yeah, okay, well you can show me
Speaker 2: eight million more. I'm pro pardon.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Like when you ask somebody something uncomfortable in the Trump world,
Speaker 2: the first thing is like, wow, it's antifao, or that's
Speaker 2: a manipulated image, or that didn't happen. Like they throw
Speaker 2: out a bunch of possibilities, and then when you get
Speaker 2: through all of it, it ends finally with I don't
Speaker 2: fucking care.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you can, just didn't make that right away,
Speaker 4: and we could grap by lunch. If you just all
Speaker 4: said it right away, it'll be great. Another thing we
Speaker 4: kind of discovered, which was on a lighter note, a
Speaker 4: pretty funny thing about a special VIP guest.
Speaker 1: Everybody here was excited about.
Speaker 3: Garbage truck. Baby. One thing you're most excited about seeing.
Speaker 2: Today Donald Trump at five o'clock.
Speaker 1: That's it. Garbage truck.
Speaker 3: Yes, this garbage truck.
Speaker 2: The mag of garbage truck that went viral during the
Speaker 2: campaign who reportedly hit the streets during the inauguration day parade,
Speaker 2: and these full grown adults who voted for the president
Speaker 2: were really really pumped.
Speaker 1: The garbage truck is Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't know that the garbage truck is here.
Speaker 1: I did hear that.
Speaker 3: I did hear you.
Speaker 1: It was common. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Garbage truck is here.
Speaker 1: Have you heard about the one that Trump's sat in?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Donald Trump, garbage truck was scheduled to appear at
Speaker 2: this inauguration and we laughed about it on the show.
Speaker 2: And when that news article came about, like who the
Speaker 2: VIPs were they mentioned garbage truck. You know, we had
Speaker 2: a field day with anout of the show. And so
Speaker 2: the question that we had before coming down is like,
Speaker 2: do people really give a shit about the garbage truck?
Speaker 2: And it turns out the answer is yes, they do.
Speaker 3: But it's they are so excited.
Speaker 4: The group of three women, they reminded us about their
Speaker 4: excitement because they brought it up. It wasn't We didn't
Speaker 4: actually have to prompt them. They were like, oh, I'm
Speaker 4: also very excited about the garbage truck.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The funniest thing might be that the garbage truck was
Speaker 4: never there. As far as we can tell.
Speaker 2: That this was a weekend of metaphors. Like, if you want,
Speaker 2: when years from now we look back, what was the
Speaker 2: Trump presidency? Like, you see nothing but metaphors. You see
Speaker 2: a rich man hanging out with his billionaire friends, leaving
Speaker 2: his supporters out in the cold. You see a bunch
Speaker 2: of people coming to Washington Tea excited about one image
Speaker 2: of American greatness, that being a garbage truck, and yet
Speaker 2: the third metaphor being the garbage truck that was promised
Speaker 2: never even fucking arrived.
Speaker 4: It felt like it's funny because it was just it
Speaker 4: was reported that it would be there. It feels like
Speaker 4: those convoys that were like forever supposed to be heading
Speaker 4: to the Capitol. They show these images of like seven
Speaker 4: thousand truckers are driving in the capitol protests, you know,
Speaker 4: vaccine mandates, and it just didn't exist, but everybody would
Speaker 4: post about it. So it feels like that I'm sad
Speaker 4: where you know, how could they not get the garbage
Speaker 4: truck there? It doesn't seem like it takes that much, but.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: I remember day when we shot this piece over two days,
Speaker 2: the day before at the victory rally and the inauguration day,
Speaker 2: and one of those first interviews, the women brought up
Speaker 2: garbage truck, and so we just decided, because the reaction
Speaker 2: was so funny to us, that we would ask everybody
Speaker 2: about the garbage truck.
Speaker 3: And everybody was.
Speaker 2: So so fricking excited to a tea that it became
Speaker 2: like our internal the one thing that we found so
Speaker 2: much joy in asking, Well, we got to ask what
Speaker 2: the garbage truck?
Speaker 4: Maybe you see their faces light up. It was like
Speaker 4: a switch, like I think you made the observation and
Speaker 4: it didn't make it to the piece, but like their
Speaker 4: reaction and like obviously discussion and excitement over garbage trucks
Speaker 4: is very childish, but their reaction was like like that
Speaker 4: time's one hundred. It was like telling your child you
Speaker 4: could have ice cream for breakfast. Will you tell a
Speaker 4: kid that, like, oh my god, this is the best
Speaker 4: day ever? Oh yes, that was. It was that kind
Speaker 4: of reaction. It was like a child finding out they
Speaker 4: getting extra dessert.
Speaker 2: It was pure, unadult traded joy. It was like they're
Speaker 2: excited about two things. One they're excited about migrant families
Speaker 2: being detained at the border, and a garbage truck has
Speaker 2: arrived to Washington, DC.
Speaker 4: What joy, This is a new serious chapter in America.
Speaker 1: A garbage truck.
Speaker 3: We did get.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite moments in these pieces was the
Speaker 2: lovely couple at the end, one dressed as Spider Man,
Speaker 2: the other dressed as a traditional.
Speaker 3: MAGA supporter with a Fipe Fight Fight t shirt.
Speaker 2: And they were bummed, as most people were out there
Speaker 2: on the Capitol lawn that there was no event, and
Speaker 2: when we told them that the truck was potentially there,
Speaker 2: they got so giddy, and the man and the Spider
Speaker 2: Man said.
Speaker 3: Ooh, ooh, I saw one. I saw one such joy.
Speaker 2: And then when we slowed it down to be like wait, wait,
Speaker 2: you saw a garbage truck, not necessarily the garbage truck,
Speaker 2: and he conferred, yes, that it was a garbage truck.
Speaker 3: And I'm so excited that I saw a garbage truck.
Speaker 3: To me that that that was.
Speaker 2: Such a lovely comedic height need and also an articulation
Speaker 2: of what that joy is. It's it's not even attached
Speaker 2: anymore to the trolling an event of the garbage truck
Speaker 2: or Donald Trump's supremacy. It's attached to the sere joy
Speaker 2: of seeing a thing. And that's the Maga twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Everyone, Yeah, it's It was the exact same kind of
Speaker 4: reaction to my child in a stroller being pushed around
Speaker 4: Brooklyn and seeing an actual garbage truck and pointing truck truck.
Speaker 4: It was the exact same thing, except my child was two.
Speaker 2: And to be clear, your your child's not in control
Speaker 2: of of or has a say and who should be
Speaker 2: running the largest democracy on planet Earth correctly.
Speaker 4: Did not vote, did not vote, did not donate. Moody
Speaker 4: the Trump campaign so has no say yeah, no say
Speaker 4: What other group I want to talk about were the
Speaker 4: I think they called themselves the Maga Boys, and they
Speaker 4: look like a boy band We saw them from a
Speaker 4: distance and it was like too incredible not to approach.
Speaker 2: Not only are we excited here in the US, but
Speaker 2: the world is excited.
Speaker 3: We're excited to get rid of the old administration. You know,
Speaker 3: just wipe the slate clean.
Speaker 2: You do that with like dope dance moves or something.
Speaker 3: No, we do that with Crypto and AI.
Speaker 4: We only used this a little bit of them. But
Speaker 4: that was a fun interaction. What was your reaction, What
Speaker 4: did you think of them, and what do you think
Speaker 4: of their story? Remember they kind of told told you
Speaker 4: who they were and what they did or supposed did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's it's fascinating to see the the
Speaker 2: Donald Trump means different things to different groups.
Speaker 3: The Maga faithful are not monolithic.
Speaker 2: And these guys, these guys were dressed head to toe
Speaker 2: and bespoke Maga gear, like expensive red, white and blue
Speaker 2: leather jackets. Nice jackets, they were nice jackets, and they
Speaker 2: were they had energy. They had they had they had
Speaker 2: Maga bro energy. And they told us their story, which
Speaker 2: was essentially that like they found this, they found this team,
Speaker 2: this Maga tine. They traveled around in a bus and
Speaker 2: they had converted their their bus into a podcast bust
Speaker 2: that is hitting the country and bringing the power of
Speaker 2: talk Maga Boydom all of that stuff to change America.
Speaker 2: When we asked them, how do they go to change America?
Speaker 2: And they said, through the power of AI and crypto,
Speaker 2: big Crypto. Guys huge into AI Crypto. They talked a
Speaker 2: lot about bitcoin and all sorts of all sorts of
Speaker 2: cryptonomics with us, and I think when we brought up like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: the big news was the Trump coin and it made
Speaker 2: so much fricking money, We're like, oh, how many of
Speaker 2: those did you guys get?
Speaker 3: They missed it.
Speaker 4: They missed their whole thing is Trump and crypto and
Speaker 4: Trump coin. They missed that investment opportunity and they felt
Speaker 4: so stupid and they should And then their excuse was,
Speaker 4: we didn't think the Trump effect would be that big
Speaker 4: while they're dressed in head to toe Trump gear, Like
Speaker 4: if anyone should know that it's that big. You guys
Speaker 4: have like dedicated your life to this. Look you are it.
Speaker 2: You are it, you believe in this man and crypto,
Speaker 2: and you missed the moment because you underplan it.
Speaker 4: I feel like that missing that moment is like altered
Speaker 4: their course in some ways that we can't. We don't know,
Speaker 4: but like their lives would be very different obviously, but
Speaker 4: like I almost feel like sadly missing that moment. I
Speaker 4: could see them, like the group splintering and them blaming
Speaker 4: each other and Maga Boys is over. Like you think
Speaker 4: that we were writing that episode of TV about them,
Speaker 4: That's what I think would be that missed we missed,
Speaker 4: they missed trump Coin and then now they're they got
Speaker 4: to blame each other.
Speaker 2: I think I imagine them like a traditional boy band,
Speaker 2: like an En Sync or Backstreet Boy. You got your
Speaker 2: you got your vibe of who's the justin Timberlake and
Speaker 2: who's going to break out, who's going to end up
Speaker 2: having substance abuse problems, who's going to have a solo
Speaker 2: career in the maga sphere, become a crypto rapper or something.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: A year and a half from now, you could really
Speaker 2: see it all distilled.
Speaker 4: You're the quiet one. You're the one who's going to
Speaker 4: get thrown out of your job in law enforcement. This
Speaker 4: is what Okay, I figured it out.
Speaker 2: And you're all going through divorces right now. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: the tie.
Speaker 1: There's a lot here. Okay, you know what you know.
Speaker 2: What a moment that stood out to me too is
Speaker 2: like the culture of Maga is fascinating. And we we
Speaker 2: were outside Capital One arena and then we did most
Speaker 2: of our interviews and I went in not to the
Speaker 2: arena but hotel and just watched most of that victory rally.
Speaker 2: And it's wild to watch these events played out over
Speaker 2: an hour and a half. You watch Kid Rock do
Speaker 2: multiple songs that are anti Deep State, and then he
Speaker 2: does Bau with Taba with Trump speeches intercut in between
Speaker 2: where he's wearing like a wife beater. There's a guitar solo,
Speaker 2: and the audience is filmed filled of like fifty of
Speaker 2: like thousands of fifty to sixty year olds, half dancing
Speaker 2: and half not knowing what to do. It's a weird
Speaker 2: cultural moment. Village people comes in like it's just it's abrasively.
Speaker 2: It's abrasively like wedding band culture, yeah, to an audience
Speaker 2: that is not super into it, but it's just excited
Speaker 2: to have been invited to the.
Speaker 1: Wedding yeah, and had a few cocktails.
Speaker 4: So they're gonna dance so hard to these songs that
Speaker 4: they've never given a shit about.
Speaker 3: And like you.
Speaker 2: We traveled around DC that day, like the Village People
Speaker 2: has now just become almost a trolling song. There's little
Speaker 2: rickshaws that were riding around trying to get people to
Speaker 2: hop on playing the Village People. I walked into a
Speaker 2: pizza shop that for the inauguration had brought in a
Speaker 2: DJ to Spin Tunes who was playing y MCA at
Speaker 2: a sad little pizza shop outside of Capitol One Arena
Speaker 2: with a bunch of maga red hats sitting there on dates,
Speaker 2: awkwardly eating mediocre pizza and listening to a DJ blast
Speaker 2: the Village People, where you're just like, are you guys
Speaker 2: even enjoying this?
Speaker 3: Is this what victory looks like? Is this what the
Speaker 3: new culture is? That?
Speaker 2: I don't want to be pretentious that the new culture
Speaker 2: has to has to live in some world of like
Speaker 2: Philip Roth novels or us just zoning out to the
Speaker 2: newest electro jazz. But there's something to what is.
Speaker 4: There should be better music. There should be better music
Speaker 4: in America is like future.
Speaker 2: We should aspire to something better than a set actually
Speaker 2: a DJ and a pizza joint playing a gay anthem
Speaker 2: from the eighties.
Speaker 4: Right, just want to finish and talk about the vibe
Speaker 4: at the Mall on the second day, because obviously there
Speaker 4: was not an event there. But we went there knowing
Speaker 4: people would just show up because what else do they
Speaker 4: have to do.
Speaker 3: It's we were unsure where to go.
Speaker 2: There's a twenty thousand people I believe were getting into
Speaker 2: Capital One Arena with like a promise of perhaps seeing
Speaker 2: Donald Trump later in the day.
Speaker 3: But for the thousands, you.
Speaker 2: Know, some people said, there's hundreds of thousands of people
Speaker 2: who came to DC to see Donald Trump. They had
Speaker 2: no place to go, and it was fascinating people. We
Speaker 2: walked around on the National Mall like people were starting
Speaker 2: to congregate there. They had taken down the jumbotrons, they
Speaker 2: had taken out any place for people to hang. But
Speaker 2: Donald Trump was in the rotundan, So people kind of
Speaker 2: made their way there as a pilgrimage. People were bummed out.
Speaker 2: They'd spent thousands of to get there. We felt for it.
Speaker 2: We would see families there who came down to DC
Speaker 2: for the first time, spent a bunch of money to
Speaker 2: get there, and now they didn't know where to go
Speaker 2: or what to do, and so there was a there's
Speaker 2: like a melancholy on the National Mall.
Speaker 3: We ran into a few people who like who spoke
Speaker 3: to that. I think we laughed.
Speaker 2: They called it a calm we felt it was like
Speaker 2: somber felt a bit like a funeral.
Speaker 4: At well, I mean, because we've shot on them all
Speaker 4: a bunch, And obviously we were there in January sixth,
Speaker 4: and that day is very different and the energy is
Speaker 4: very different. But it was so odd to be there
Speaker 4: and see that many people being quiet, Like like your
Speaker 4: brain when you see that many people, you're kind of
Speaker 4: anticipating just like noise. But it was really quiet, like
Speaker 4: I think you you you know, you touched on that
Speaker 4: on the piece. But still they had to go and
Speaker 4: gather somewhere. So it's not like there's like great museums
Speaker 4: in that town that they could all go to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. It's Martin Luther King's Day.
Speaker 2: And maybe if there could be like an African American
Speaker 2: museum that can help, you know, Americans reflect on our
Speaker 2: troubled history with racial inequality.
Speaker 3: Literally, maybe that would be a nice opportunity.
Speaker 4: Literally hundreds of yards just a couple hundred yard from
Speaker 4: where we were standing, not like another section of the
Speaker 4: city like right there.
Speaker 1: You could go right there today.
Speaker 2: It is. It created such a fascinating organic situation, which
Speaker 2: is true, Like the Maga faithful are always asking where's
Speaker 2: the party at, and oftentimes it's in a fricking parking lot.
Speaker 2: But then a jumbo jet comes in and a man
Speaker 2: yells about immigrants for an hour and a half and
Speaker 2: they buy a silly hat. That day, nobody knew where
Speaker 2: the party was at, and so they meandered and they wandered.
Speaker 2: They didn't know how to like organize their their excitement,
Speaker 2: and the reality was the party was inside the rotunda
Speaker 2: with a bunch of rich people who are taking care
Speaker 2: of the things that they want to take care of,
Speaker 2: and they're they're left to sort of wander the National
Speaker 2: Mall among these monuments essentially lost.
Speaker 4: So obviously we've been to Trump events when he's won
Speaker 4: and events when he's lost, and the ones he lost
Speaker 4: were really kind of hairy January sixth, even the millionm
Speaker 4: Aga march before that was in a way kind of scarier.
Speaker 4: But now they won and they're feeling pretty good. Did
Speaker 4: you notice a shift in the tone and the vibes
Speaker 4: for yourself at this event?
Speaker 2: People were definitely jubilant and excited to be there. I
Speaker 2: didn't see any vibes that were the anti media vibes
Speaker 2: that we've seen in the past. I don't see that
Speaker 2: as a long term solution to this, this tension that
Speaker 2: exists oftentimes out there in the field. But because this
Speaker 2: weekend was an example of Donald Trump's vision for America
Speaker 2: finding its audience and being celebrated, people seem just just
Speaker 2: happy and didn't pay us any mind.
Speaker 3: We are we are part of the We are part
Speaker 3: of the.
Speaker 2: Media landscape that they don't have to pay attention to
Speaker 2: now weeks from now, as as things perhaps don't go
Speaker 2: as well as they imagine they could go in their
Speaker 2: own minds, I imagine sort of, perhaps there's a tension
Speaker 2: that gets brought back into it. I think that's what
Speaker 2: happened with us last time, eight years ago. Again, I
Speaker 2: don't think I think it's going to be very different
Speaker 2: four years than Trump's first four years. Yeah, but I
Speaker 2: do think I do think this is just a brief
Speaker 2: pause in the tension and the anger. I think the
Speaker 2: MAGA movement is based on anger and grievance aimed at something,
Speaker 2: and therefore this was this was more of an aberration
Speaker 2: to what is maga as opposed to a new new
Speaker 2: angle for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Just but just wait until Congress refuses to change
Speaker 4: the constitution so he could run for a third term.
Speaker 4: They're going to be so angry that Prepare yourself.
Speaker 3: I am. I'm already prepared. I've already heard the rumor
Speaker 3: that he's going to run as vice.
Speaker 2: President next time around, which which I'm like, oh that
Speaker 2: that makes too much sense.
Speaker 1: God damn it, it really does. Oh my god.
Speaker 4: Any thoughts going forward, I mean, we we've covered Trump
Speaker 4: in the past. I think he took a little break
Speaker 4: from rallies, but still he can't resist doing them. Any
Speaker 4: ideas about like covering the these kinds of events the
Speaker 4: next few months.
Speaker 2: I mean, we always talk about what we like about
Speaker 2: going to these events. You know, it's it's like a
Speaker 2: it's it's a laboratory of ideas. We get to see
Speaker 2: that the conversations that Donald Trump has in front of
Speaker 2: the media or he tweets about, like what actually resonates
Speaker 2: with his his supporters.
Speaker 3: What we discovered with this one.
Speaker 2: We talked, you know, since since Trump was elected, we
Speaker 2: hadn't gone to one of these events before, and so
Speaker 2: a lot has happened, and so we brought up things
Speaker 2: like Greenland and what and and the Panama Canal and
Speaker 2: and Canada. There's a lot new Mexico, the uh oh yeah,
Speaker 2: the the golf of the Golf of Mexico slash America.
Speaker 2: We brought up a lot of these issues, and it
Speaker 2: is fascinating to see what has penetrated. Like again, more
Speaker 2: often than that, we see people create an argument for
Speaker 2: Donald Trump out of these things that they haven't thought about,
Speaker 2: perhaps ever in their lives, but also stuff that doesn't
Speaker 2: resonate with them. They had no opinions about the Panama Canal.
Speaker 2: They were grasping at straws about Greenland. And I think
Speaker 2: as we move forward, who knows how many of these
Speaker 2: events there will be.
Speaker 3: But I think we.
Speaker 2: Always are on the searche to see what people actually
Speaker 2: are talking about and how the propaganda is working. And
Speaker 2: many times, I think that's what we do out there.
Speaker 2: We're testing what propaganda works and what doesn't work.
Speaker 3: And when you're in a.
Speaker 2: Hotel and you see people cheer for Donald Trump saying
Speaker 2: he won the Youth Book by thirty six percent, that
Speaker 2: propaganda's working. But then when you're out in the cold,
Speaker 2: and you hear people have no idea what's going on
Speaker 2: with the Panama Canal. You see that propaganda hasn't taken
Speaker 2: hold yet, and so I think we're going to continue
Speaker 2: to stress test how America's propaganda diet is sitting in Well.
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to it. I would make kind of
Speaker 4: one ask of the universe, and that would be, like,
Speaker 4: he's in Florida all the time, do a public rally
Speaker 4: down there so we can go to Florida in the
Speaker 4: winter and not a northeastern frigid city.
Speaker 1: Just do that.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. I think we support mar Lago
Speaker 2: being the second White House. Let's do the events down there.
Speaker 2: For the love of God, The Daily Show asked you
Speaker 2: Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Great idea. All right, Jordan, thank you, a.
Speaker 2: Big thank you to Ian Berger. We're going to continue
Speaker 2: fingering the pulls together for Trump Part two, and hopefully
Speaker 2: we'll be back here to tell some more war stories.
Speaker 2: This has been behind the show at the Daily Show.
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