Here’s Why Comedian Jon Stewart Says Trump is “Exposing Corporate and Political Corruption”

Writer and comedian Jon Stewart said convicted felon Donald Trump has been a “gift” in disguise for the United States. While speaking on his new podcast, The Weekly Show , Stewart discussed Trump, American democracy, and the upcoming 2024 elections in November. In the same show, he credited the ex-president for “exposing” corruption in the nation.

Stewart said although Trump’s conviction in the Hush Money verdict painted him in a bad light, in some ways, this served good to America as it lifted the lid on “a reality of crony capitalism, a reality of transactional corruption that is the heartbeat of corporate and political America,” as per Daily Mail.

The 61-year-old also added that it further revealed flaws in US politics, “In some ways, he is doing us a service in that he is like…you know how they employ a white hat hacker who will go into a system and find its vulnerabilities.”

He was in discussion with the chief Washington correspondent for the New Yorker magazine, Jane Mayer, and the President of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Noah Bookbinder, and asked if Trump’s criminal conviction in the Hush Money verdict “exposing a reality” of widespread and deep-rooted corruption in America.

“Is he exposing a reality? I’m not saying he’s not pushing the limit of it,” Stewart said, adding, “I’m not saying he’s not exploiting it, but isn’t he exposing at some level a reality of crony capitalism, a reality of transactional corruption that is the heartbeat of corporate and political America.”

Mayer responded, “What I’ve seen is the money has become bigger and bigger and bigger, and it is corrupting the government but it wasn’t always this way. It’s not the whole story. There are incredible numbers of people in Washington who are really dedicated to doing the right thing for the right reasons, both Republicans and Democrats.”

The comedian argued despite how dedicated and fair-operating the judicial system is, Trump’s case has proved there are “vulnerabilities” in the system. Stewart asserted, “He’s identifying though a dissatisfaction and two things can be true. One is there are a lot of really good, dedicated policy people and good-hearted with great integrity people working in Washington every day to make the country work better.”

“And number two is the system is so removed from the needs of its people and so insulated and isolated within the Beltway and within that very peculiar system within the Beltway, that it can’t actually accomplish the goal even those good-hearted people of integrity want it to,” Stewart added. Further, he said that the system needs to be “reverse engineered” given the loopholes.

After Trump was convicted in the Hush Money trial, Republicans echoed the ex-commander-in-chief and called the case “rigged.”  Stewart took notice of those and mocked them in his own fashion, saying, “Maybe our justice system wasn’t a sham, but certainly applying our justice system to Donald Trump was,” gasping, “‘What planet do you live on?’ For it’s clearly not ours,” per The Hollywood Reporter.