Jon Stewart praises Donald Trump’s authoritarian aesthetic

Jon Stewart offered his usual assessment of Donald Trump‘s second term as president — skewering critique — on Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, but reserved a particularly biting rant for the president’s inner circle.

The episode showed footage of current Cabinet members, one after another, praising Trump ad nauseam for his “leadership at the border,” doing “a great service to your country,” and so on. The comedian wondered if the praise was genuine.

“When I watch those Cabinet meetings,” Stewart said, “I actually think, Are they making fun of him? It’s so over the top.” He imitated them, “Mr. President, oh, thank you so much. Your d— is so big, we can barely lift it, because it’s covered in real gold — not the paint, real gold.”

Stewart played a clip earlier in the episode that showed Trump telling a reporter that people had never been able to come up with a color of paint that looks like real gold. He was showing her angels made out of gold in the White House.

See his full monologue below.

“They’re angels,” Stewart said, slipping into his Trump impression. “They visited me in the night and asked me to change my ways. So I held them down and dipped them in gold. I drowned them in gold, liquid gold. Have you ever heard an angel scream? It is just, it is erotic.”

He did it again later, referencing Trump’s cuts in funding in categories including health.

“Why can’t they make a paint that looks like gold?” Stewart said in his Trumpian voice. “I don’t mind them canceling pediatric cancer research, but I hope by the end of the term we can come up with a good gold paint substitute.”

Stewart surmised that the decor was there for a reason.

“Authoritarianism isn’t just policies. It’s an aesthetic,” he said. “The opulence of Medieval kings, the excesses of Middle Eastern autocrats. It’s a Pinterest vibe that speaks to the power of one’s position, the riches that are the privilege of the office.”