After losing some moral ground earlier this week when he called part of Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech against Donald Trump “tone-deaf,” The Daily Show host Trevor Noah gained some back Wednesday night in his response to the president-elect’s “frightening” first press conference.
“It’s time for Trump to realize he can’t keep running for president,” Noah said. “Donald Trump, it’s time to be president. Just because you’re really good at elementary school doesn’t mean you get to stay there forever.”
During his appearance in front of reporters, Trump called BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage” for publishing a dossier that claims the Russians have explicit dirt on him and accused CNN of peddling in fake news for reporting on that document’s existence.
“Wow, welcome to the next four years,” Noah said, after playing a clip of the moment Trump shouted down CNN’s Jim Acosta. “You know what? Honestly, that was one of the most frightening moments of today’s presser for me. Because, in America, the press is supposed to be a check on the president, not the other way around.”
“And you realize this is essentially the first step in the authoritarian tango,” the host continued. “That’s what you do. You shut down one news organization by alleging that it’s all fake. And then if you get away with it, you can shut down another news network, and another news network, shut them down, shut them down.”
If Trump gets his way, Noah said, the news will consist of nothing but reports on how good he looks. Perhaps that’s why CNN’s Jake Tapper was so unnerved this afternoon.