Trevor Noah mined comedic gold out of something that should scare the heck out of us: the thugs and shady characters Donald Trump has put at the forefront of his campaign.
On The Daily Show Monday night, Noah began his riff by noting that “crazy people love Trump.” Exhibit A was convicted rapist Mike Tyson. Next up, former basketball coach Bobby Knight, seen throwing a chair onto a court. Knight also has a history with rape in that he once said the stress of his job was like rape. We saw a clip of Knight telling a stunned Connie Chung,
“If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”
But Noah said it’s more important to judge Trump by the people he chooses, not those who support him. Of course, Trump has said he’ll get “the best” and “the smartest” to work for him.
One of Trump’s “best” was, presumably Carl Paladino, who helped lead Trump to primary victory in New York. In 2010, when Paladino was running for governor of New York, he was caught forwarding racist, sexist material to friends on the internet. One email was so offensive, 90% of it was blacked out when Fox News reported on it. Noah quipped:
“What is that? Even in Africa, they’d be like, ‘That’s a lot of black.’”
Noah went “national” by moving on to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the guy who was recently accused of assaulting reporter Michelle Fields (charges were later dropped). Noah said,
“In any other campaign, a misdemeanor assault charge might be seen as a negative. But in a Trump campaign, that’s a qualification.”
But all those thugs were small potatoes compared to Trump advisor Paul Manafort. Manafort’s resumé, Noah revealed, includes lobbying on behalf of dictators and torturers from around the world.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is currently being run by the same guy who represented dictators and genocidal maniacs when they were trying to appear more presidential. And basically, his job was to take these non-traditional politicians and make them more palatable to Americans, […] including the mad men who ruled and terrorized Nigeria, Zaire, Angola, Kenya, and Somalia. So when Donald Trump needed help remaking his image, the decision was easy for him. He basically just said, ‘Let’s hire the guy who does African dictators. He gets me. Yeah.’”
The scariest part of all, of course, is how Trump fits so well with such a cast of scoundrels.
But if we’re stuck with Trump for now, we may as well have some laughs at his expense.
Featured image via screen grab.
