On Monday nightโs episode of โThe Daily Show,โ Jon Stewart gave audiences a comedic rundown of the recent developments in the relationship between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping following Trumpโs hosting of Jinping in Washington, D.C., for what was called a โreciprocal state visitโ by the White House.
Stewart kicked off his monologue by introducing the two and setting the scene of their time together.
โLast 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. Now, as with any monumental meeting of superpowers, with profound repercussions for global safety and stability, it began with โHouse Tour,โโ sang Stewart, before cutting to news videos of Trump pointing at a number of different areas.
โTrump spent most of Xiโs White House visit just pointing at shit, while Xi did his best effort to pretend to be impressed. Although Iโm sure they talked about issues of national importance,โ said Stewart, then alternating to news clips of Trump speaking to the press: โWe had a great meeting, and he has great interest in granite,โ he said.
โDoes he? Does he love good granite?โ asked Stewart. โIs that his โI love good granite face?โ Because it looks like his โIโd rather be standing in front of a tank in a square faceโฆ Like President Trump, Iโm sure youโre proud of your new circular granite helicopter parking spot, but just so you know, this is Shenzhen, China. Theyโve got a fully autonomous magnetic levitation train. Pretty sure heโs not blown away by carved rock in the shape of a circle.โ
Stewart continued, pointing out that Trump must understand โthe seriousness of the competition between our two nationsโ and would not undermine Americaโs national security. โI mean, national security is the whole reason weโre paying $600 million for this ballroom, right? So youโll keep that behind the curtain, yeah?โ Not quite โ Trump invited the couple โthrough that beautiful curtain,โ making them the first people to set foot in it. โMaybe Trumpโs just trying to sell Xi Jinping on renting the ballroom out for his next big function,โ joked Stewart.
He then brought up recent developments in China-U.S. relations, playing news clips explaining that China had been sending Iran weapons. And not only did this topic not appear to come up between the two presidents, but it seemed as though Trump offered to sell American weapons to China.
โHow does America even stay on the map sometimes? I donโt even. How do we not just slide into the sea? All right, I had to have misheard that. I got to hear it from the president himself.โ The show then cut to a clip of Trump denying this, saying that China probably would like to buy weapons from the U.S., though, โbecause we do make better equipment.โ
Check out the entire monologue below.