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Jon Stewart has taken aim at Donald Trump’s trade tariffs row, lambasting him for picking fights with countries including Canada and Panama.
The tariffs were set to come into force this week after the new US president signed a trio of executive orders. He claimed the measures are designed to stop the flow of drugs and immigrants from the country’s two closest neighbours, Canada and Mexico.
In his opening monologue on this week’s episode of The Daily Show, Stewart took Trump to task over the measures as well as his supposed plans to take over Panama and Greenland.
“The EU? Canada? Do we have any friends? I mean, Mexico, I get. Trump’s been hate-f***ing Mexico pretty much since the escalator,” said Stewart, in reference to Trump famously launching his 2016 campaign from an escalator in Trump Tower.
“But Canada? Ca-nada?” asked Stewart. “We’re picking a fight with our most reliable and pleasant friend? The labradoodle of allies?”
“Denmark, Panama and Canada. We’re America! We used to fight the Nazis. Now we’re scouring the globe for easy marks,” joked the comedian. “What are we, the Jake Paul of nations? No offence. ‘I know China’s out there, but Panama’s a legitimate fight!’”
Throughout the segment, Stewart played clips of Trump trying to justify the tariffs on Canada by criticising deals that he had previously made. “I look at some of the deals made, I say, ‘Who the hell made these deals? They’re so bad,’” says Trump in the clip.
Addressing the studio audience: “Ladies and gentlemen, for your dining and dancing pleasure, come with me into the way back machine, to 2018. I give you the culprit of the terrible deal with Canada.”
“Oh! A deal done by Trump’s greatest nemesis: Trump,” joked the 62-year-old.
Meanwhile, China has announced a package of tariffs on a range of American products in retaliation against a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports imposed by Trump.
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It comes after the US president agreed to suspend his aggressive tariff hike against Mexico and Canada by one month after speaking with his counterparts in both nations. The threatened Chinese tariffs, however, went ahead at 12.01am ET on Tuesday (4 February).
Regarding Mexico, Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social that he had had a “very friendly” conversation with president Claudia Sheinbaum who agreed that soldiers “will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country”.
