Jon Stewarthas taken some heat over the past month for supposedly not attacking the Trump administration enough. A week after Donald Trump was officially inaugurated as President of the United States, Stewart spent his weekly monologue onThe Daily Showwarning people to not overreact toevery single thing the Trump administration does, and to not scream “fascist” every day. It was a more centrist take than the left wanted to see after the first week of Trump’s presidency, resulting in a bevy of criticism and YouTube comments like, “Glad to read I am not the only one who doesn’t see it the way Jon does tonight. Fascism doesn’t come in with a bang; it slithers in and erodes the institutions from within.” It’s safe to say that, one month later, things have heated up.
Monday, Jun 13, 2025, saw one of Stewart’s most immediately acclaimed monologues since his return toThe Daily Showin Feb. 2024. It was certainly a passionate one, with the comedic commentator literally bleeding out during the second half of it after angrily smashing a mug. At first, it seemed like a gag — smashing a prop mug the waySNLwill use prop bottles and plates to smash. However,Stewart noticeably kept his right hand under the desk for the rest of the episode, only once bringing it up to reveal a fistful of blood.The audience gasped, to which Stewart groaned, “It’s fine!”
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Stewart continued the rest of the 22-minute monologue without missing a beat. He conducted his usual long-form interview after the commercial break, during which his hand had been bandaged.He continued to keep it under the desk during the interview except for one moment when he showed his still-bleeding but wrapped-up hand, saying, “Oh wow, this thing is really coming out.“The passionate monologue has earned some of the best feedbackThe Daily Showhas received in months.
“Cuts hand by rage smashing a mug and completes the monologue without missing a beat. Maestro, take a bow!” writes @Tarasankar_Gangopadhyay in a YouTube comment on the video. “This might be in the top 5 best Jon Stewart clips I’ve ever seen,” writes YouTuber @Polish_Hammer1987. “This is the best episode of this show since Jon’s return… Just amazing work,” writes @P3PP3RX. “J Stew absolutely on fire here. One of his best monologues ever,” writes @rennur505. “Kudos to Jon for not skipping a beat, I bet that stung. Jon Stewart for President,” writes @kjacob35.
So what got Jon “Rambo” Stewart so incensed that he drew first blood?
Jon Stewart Bleeds While Blasting DOGE
After a brief opening noting that the United States joined only Russia, North Korea, and Belarus in voting against an otherwise unanimous UN motion critiquing Russia, Stewart’sDaily Showmonologue focused on the current government ‘cuts’ being done by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (which can be pronounced as “dodgy”). Stewart listened to clips of Trump and others touting how much the government was supposedly spending on fraud, like paying deceased people Social Security, which hasn’t actually been happening. Stewart said:
“If true, you can’t argue with that. If only it were happening. But it’s not happening. We’re not paying millions and millions of dead people’s Social Security money. Andeven if there was a 200-year-old man walking around, he wouldn’t need social security, he’d still be in Congress. Guys, I’m going to tell you something. Cutting money shouldn’t be this hard. I’m starting to think that we as a country don’t understand where the real waste, fraud, and abuse in our system really is.”
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Stewart then took out what he called an “accountant starter kit” — a green visor, a desk lamp, a calculator, and a white mug with the text “World’s Most Dad” scrawled across it. “I’m gonna see if I can noodle some ideas here,” Stewart said as he fake-typed away on the calculator, before dishing out some obvious ways to cut government costs without hurting actual workers. “Oh, how about we just take the $3 billion in subsidies we give to oil and gas companies that already turn billions in profits?” He continued:
“Oh, wait,how about we just close down the carried interest loophole on hedge funds? That’s $1.3 billion a year. Oh, how about we stop the $2 trillion we’ve given to defense contractors to build a fighter jet that blows, when everybody knows the next war is gonna be fought with drones and ‘blockchain,’ whatever that is. Holy sh*t, I can’t believe it! I just saved us billions of dollars in 11 seconds. Just call me big balls.”
“See, this is where the real money is, the money our free market-ish system uses to prop up corporate profit at the expense of the taxpayer.Pharmaceutical companies get everything from our government — tax breaks, research grants, patent extensions worth billions of dollars. And what do we, the people, get for it? The highest drug prices in the Western Hemisphere,” continued Stewart before making a joke about infected perineums. “What’s so horrible about our system now, and the corruption that lies within it, is we’re so numb to it, we actually tout tiny cracks in that exploitation as victory.”
This led to a 2024 clip of then-President Joe Biden gleefully exclaiming how he negotiated with Big Pharma to lower the prices of 10 drugs. “Can it be?” Stewart asked sarcastically. “The companies we subsidize with billions of dollars are allowing us the privilege to negotiate the price of 10 of their drugs? And 10 is all of them, right? It would be embarrassing if it was a small drop in the bucket, and that the American people didn’t expect that we should negotiate for all their drugs, because we’ve already paid for it with our subsidies!“A pissed Stewart then grabbed his mug and slammed it down on his desk, shattering it into many pieces and cutting his hand up in the process.
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The rest of Stewart’s monologue is a perfect summation of the illusion presented by DOGE. They fire (and, in many instances, desperately try to rehire) working-class people, most of whom have been doing an excellent job at the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Parks Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the National Institue of Health, and other departments. They then lie about how much money they just saved (initially saying $55 billion, when the actual amount is less than $3 billion), all while corporations and billionaires receive government money and tax cuts. Stewart shares the ultimate result of all this for American workers —“We’re getting f***ed at a Diddy party, and they’re making us buy the baby oil.”
You can streamThe Daily ShowonParamount+or onComedy Central. Watch the whole monologue below; Stewart smashes the mug 17 minutes in.
