Jon Stewart thinks the president has become “lazy” about feeding the public his lies.
As Trump continues to face backlash for a crazed weekend during which he lambasted the pope on social media and posted a picture of himself as Jesus, Stewart had a hot take about where Trump currently stands.
The 79-year-old president defended his viral, now-deleted post, which was denounced by his political pals and opponents alike, by purporting that the AI-generated image was actually supposed to portray him as a doctor.
“It’s literally the picture you always see of Jesus, with the light in his hand, healing somebody,” Stewart said on the latest episode of The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart. “But somehow Trump was like, ‘I think that’s from The Pitt.’”
“He’s such a f---ing...he’s such a lazy liar now,” the late-night host said.
“He’s that comfortable with us that the magic has gone from our relationship,” Stewart posited. “He doesn’t even try anymore when it comes to the lying.”
Other late-night hosts shared comparable analysis in the wake of the post. Of Trump’s “doctor” defense, Jimmy Kimmel told his Monday night audience, “I don’t know which is more offensive: how dumb he is, or how dumb he thinks we are.”
Stephen Colbert, similarly, roasted the president’s excuse on The Late Show, saying, “So, Donald Trump wants us to believe that he thought this was a doctor. If I’m in a doctor’s office and that man walks in, I’m thinking I died.”
Stewart inadvertently found himself at the center of the controversy after many noticed that the AI-generated image featured a man who bore an uncanny resemblance to himself.
“This is freaking me the f--- out,” Stewart said on The Daily Show.
On his podcast, the TV host joked again about his AI doppelgänger, who Trump appears to be healing.
“When I did see that image, I was like ‘I know I don’t look great...’” Stewart told his team during the Q&A portion of the episode. He said the “upsetting” image clearly required a prompt akin to “make it like somebody that looks like they are in a bed in need of divine healing” or “grab me a sickly looking man.”
Stewart’s team said it’s “possible” that the prompt to generate the image actually mentioned him.
“You know, the worst part about the whole thing,” Stewart later admitted jokingly, “is he was laying his hands on my head, his little Trumpy hands. I didn’t need that aspect of it.”
