The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Behind The Show | Fingering the Pulse at Trump's Second Inauguration | Jordan Klepper - Ian Berger

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Jordan Klepper joins Supervising Producer and Segment Director Ian Berger to deep dive on their latest Fingering the Pulse segment, talking to the crowds at Trump’s second inauguration. They discuss the thrill of victory, the disappointment of a cancelled outdoor ceremony, mixed feelings on blanket J6 pardons, and the absolute joy of a MAGA garbage truck.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello, everybody. Jordan Klepper here, and your ears have wandered into a special podcast episode where we take you behind the show at The Daily Show. I'm joined virtually by supervising producer and segment director Ian Berger today to talk about our latest foray into the Megalopolis Figuring the polls at Trump's second inauguration. Ian. Hello. How's it going? Good. Good I'm happy to be home and thought out from that frigid weekend, but I think we had a good time

It was a cold one. I would say in prepping for this piece a good 90% of it was discussing layers How many layers we should bring, put on, what was appropriate for the upcoming apocalyptic freeze scape. Yeah, we had a few weather strategy meetings that were very important and I think we succeeded, so go us. People were very scared of this weather and I will say in retrospect, as cold as and somebody growing up in Michigan. This was like a Tuesday It was a regular Tuesday and it was it was a it was I would say a June Tuesday in Michigan Which actually brings brings up a joke you had that I don't think made the cut but we're like if if if

Magga and Trump can't weather, you know 15 degrees in Washington DC How is he gonna take Greenland? I don't think they know that much about Greenland, but I'm pretty sure they understand this call. We know for a fact they don't know much at all about Greenland. We talked significantly about Greenland, where it is, what it provides. The simple need to have Greenland existed out there in the market universe. But the temperature, the reality of the temperature definitely didn't blend. Yeah, and they want to make Canada the 51st state.

I got news for you. That's also cult. Yeah, people are, they're temperature sensitive. I think we also posited the idea that it was less a temperature decision on the Trump campaign part. And more, we don't want to see an audience smaller than Obama's decision. So there's a lot of frankly there were snowflakes everywhere. Yes there were.

Circling back you want to tell us about that weekend overall compared to the inauguration you went to eight years ago. Yeah you know eight years ago nobody really knew what to expect. There was a lot of shell-shocked reactions to the Trump administration. Going into this, I knew it was going to be a weekend full of red hats, people celebrating, people excited, and we were not disappointed as far as that goes. You enter into Washington, D.C., and it is on lockdown. I think what we had this year, because there was such a last minute shift in the ceremony,

how there was going to be nothing out there on the National Mall, like it was very confusing to travel around Washington, DC. Streets were blocked off. Nobody knew where to go, what events were taking place. And so us as a production, it was confusing navigating that, but we kept running into people who were there for the celebration. We had no idea where to go, what to do, where to stand,

what to expect. Confused but happy. It didn't matter. They had like, you're with your people if you're a MAGA fan. It didn't matter that you didn't know where to go. It felt like, yeah, it felt like people were kind of asking if we knew about things or where they should

go. But at least Trump had a rally the day before, which when we were first planning this seemed like, oh, that's a good story point because it's kind of crazy to me to say, I'm going to have a rally the day before the inauguration, which is basically a rally. But Trump needs attention, so he was doing that. But then because things got changed so much, it kind of like, I think his fans were really happy that he had this rally because there wasn't necessarily

a lawn event or whatever, a great mall event to go to. In retrospect, I understand the need for this rally. At first I was like, this man just wants nothing but celebrations. But when you have to feed the beast that is Kid Rock, placing him the day before on stage, Trump was going to give Kid Rock three or four songs to perform. Inauguration Day, hard to slide that in. It wouldn't be totally surprising if he did on I Inauguration Day, sneak Kid Rock in there. But it felt a little bit cleaner to have him the day before.

It really was an event that was like, let's bring everybody who has made a lot of noise and created awful music and culture wars, let's put them on stage to dance around. And I think the fans were very excited to have it. Yeah, in fact, like one of the lanes we wanted to explore, and it was kind of a game we had that, again, did make it it into the piece because you go out in the world and you find other stuff you great stuff You weren't expecting was that we were treating it like it was a destination wedding

But one of those like really long destination weddings with too many events and a lot of the mega crowd like bought into that They're like absolutely. It's like a destination wedding. That's great and I think we even had jokes about like, absolutely, it's like a destination wedding? That's great. And I think we even had jokes about the gifts for Trump and where they would be seated and whether they'd get invited to the Tuesday brunch. But it really was like a destination wedding because there was parties everywhere. And people are drunk during the day.

And there's a lot of outfit changes so... One premise that we had walking out was like oh this does feel like this big weekend and we started joking with people about whether or not they had seen the Trump registry and given to the Trump registry and perhaps is no surprise anymore everybody everybody didn't bat an eye like Like, the idea that, like, oh, no, one, I buy a bunch of Trump shit, so I've already paid a ton of money to the vendors right around here for the newest Trump merch.

But secondarily, like, oh, yeah, there's a tithing to be paid. We've already gifted to the campaign. We joked with a lot of people about, like, how important it is to give money to the Trump campaign because your voice won't be heard if you don't give money, and, of course with a lot of people about how important it is to give money to the Trump campaign because your voice won't be heard if you don't give money, and of course the more money you give, the louder your voice will be.

That as a comedic premise feels sound, but does not land as a comedic premise there. It just lands as a baseline reality. Yeah, and that's a sad state of affairs for politics in general in America, but yeah, there is no shame in that. We were just no shame. It's, again, we've talked about it on the show, but the implicit is now explicit. And so perhaps we are the silly ones to be like,

isn't that crazy? They're like, oh, you mean Bezos and Musk and everybody's standing right behind Donald Trump when he's sporting? No, that's just America. Yeah, absolutely. I want to talk about some of the things, like, you were surprised to see. I mean, we can talk about like the reactions to the J6 photos. What did you think of that? What were you expecting? What, you know, how

did it play out? Well, we went down there expecting some pardons to come down on day one of the new Trump administration. And frankly, we've been covering J6 since we were there on January 6th. And I think the question we had in New York was like what is the line? Is there truly a line with the MAGA faithful? So we printed out pictures and images from January 6th. People who brought a gun, a man who brought a gun and shouted outside of January 6th. We brought a picture of him. Police officers being beaten and we kind of confronted people about like, we understand you want quote unquote

blanket pardons. When you ask the MAGA faithful, like, what do you think about January 6, folks? You know, to a person, they all would say like, pardon. And then you'd follow up, blanket pardons? And most people said, yes, of course. Yet when confronted with the actual images, confronted with what they did, a good number of the people we talked to did draw a line, did see a police officer getting beat and say, well, of course not, not violent protesters. And I think looking back at what

Trump did the next day, which is essentially pardon everyone and commute the sentences of the people who were violent criminals. The majority of the MAGA folks we interacted with did see a line and drew the line at violence and attacking cops. And there was even one person who was a little ray of sunshine who saw these images of cops being attacked, beaten, and was somewhat horrified and said to us, I've never seen these images before. When we asked him where he got his media sources,

he said it was just conservative media. He was very open about that and vulnerable. Where was this at? This one's on the Capitol. January 6th? Yeah. You've not seen this image? No, I have not seen that image.

You've seen any of these images? Some of them, but not these. Really? Maybe the ones, maybe the media that I'm following is not showing these. What? It could be. It could be. What media do you follow?

All conservative. Did you watch the J-26 hearings? No, I didn't, no. OK. So this is new. So that's my fault. I should have been better informed, yes. I will say that's a refreshing thing to hear. And we went on to have a conversation

beyond what is even in the piece, where he said he promised to do his own research and engage in other media sources. Who knows if that man is knee-deep in Huffington Post right now or not, but there was a true openness to him that we rarely see at these Trump events. Yeah, he was genuinely concerned looking at those pictures, like concerned one for

like the victims in those photos, but concerned for like the state of the world that he had never seen them before and confused by it. And it's kind of amazing. And then of course, we did run into... Well, I think it does speak to many of the folks we show this to. I don't think it's seen many of these images. Their media diet doesn't show that to them, but usually approach it with, well, you're trying to manipulate me. What this man showed, and perhaps it's a crack in the wall, it's a little bit of the light that's coming through, a case for optimism. I don't know how you want to frame it, but the Maga Faithful were not defensive when it came to these conversations.

They've won. They feel like they're on cloud nine. They're getting what they want. And so in that moment, you're like, why did we get this person to actually be somewhat reflective? It's because the defensiveness has gone. He's doing a victory lap, and perhaps there's an openness, or at least we saw a moment of it.

Yeah, that was incredible. It was incredible. But and of course there are people who just have like blinders on and like their guard up. No matter what you show them, I think of the guy in the hockey jersey. He went from like kind of trying to deny the reality of the photo to just admitting that he didn't care. He's like, oh, maybe that's Antifa.

Oh, maybe the cops were attacking him. And then finally he was like, I don't care what you show me. Like truly it is the old line, Trump could shoot somebody, it could be on video, and there will be people like, I don't know. He still seems all right. This guy with a gun outside the Capitol, should he be pardoned?

Did he shoot the gun? Is that a real gun or is that a fake gun? He shot the gun up in the air, yes. Yes. He should be pardoned because... Yeah, I think he should be pardoned. Why? Because I don't think he should be...

I don't think he was... I think he should be pardoned, yeah, absolutely. What about this guy spraying a bear spray at the police officer? Self-defense. So pardon? Yeah. That's a tough one. Was that from the So pardon? Yeah. That's a tough one. Was that from the same day? Yeah, that's January 6th. The most photographed crime in human history. Yeah. Okay, well you can show me 8 million more. I'm pro-pardon. Well, like when you ask somebody something uncomfortable in the Trump world, the first

thing is like, well, it's Antifa, or that's a manipulated image, or that didn't happen. Like, they throw out a bunch of possibilities. And then when you get through all of it, it ends finally with, I don't fucking care. I don't care. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You can just admit that right away, and we could wrap by lunch if you just all said it

right away. It would be great. Another thing we kind of discovered, which was on a lighter note, a pretty funny thing about a special VIP guest, everybody there was excited about. Garbage truck, baby! One thing you're most excited about seeing today. Donald Trump at five o'clock. That's it.

And the garbage truck. And the garbage truck. Yes, this garbage truck. And the garbage truck. Yes, this garbage truck. The MAGA garbage truck that went viral during the campaign will reportedly hit the streets during the Inauguration Day parade. And these full-grown adults who voted for the president were really, really pumped.

The garbage truck is here? Yeah. No. Yeah. I didn't know that. The garbage truck is here? No, I didn't know that. The garbage truck is here? No, I did hear that. I did hear it was coming, yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about. The garbage truck is here. Have you heard about that? No, the one that Trump sat in? Yeah. Donald Trump garbage truck was scheduled to appear at this inauguration. And we laughed about it on the show. When that news article came about who the VIPs were, they mentioned garbage truck. We had a field day with it on the show. When that news article came about who the VIPs were, they mentioned garbage truck. We had a field day with it on the show.

And so the question that we had before coming down is, do people really give a shit about the garbage truck? And it turns out the answer is, yes, they do. They are so excited. The group of three women, they reminded us about their excitement because they brought it up. We didn't actually have to prompt them. They were like, oh, I'm also very excited about the garbage truck. Yeah. The funniest thing might be that the garbage truck was never there, as far as we can tell. This was a weekend of

metaphors. Like, if you want, years from now we look back at what was the Trump presidency like, you see nothing but metaphors. You see a rich man hanging out with his billionaire friends, leaving his supporters out in the cold. You see a bunch of people coming to Washington to see, excited about one image of American greatness, that being a garbage truck. And yet the third metaphor being the garbage truck that was promised never even fucking arrived. It's funny because it was reported that it would be there.

It feels like those convoys that were forever supposed to be heading to the Capitol, they show these images of 7,000 truckers are driving in the Capitol, protests, vaccine mandates, and it just didn't exist. But everybody would post about it. So it feels like that. I'm sad. How could they not get the garbage truck there? It doesn't seem like it takes that much, but... It was, I remember day one, we shot this piece over two days, the day before at the victory rally and the inauguration day. And one of those first interviews, the women brought up

garbage truck. And so we just decided because the reaction was so funny to us that we would ask everybody about the Garbage Truck. And everybody was so, so freaking excited to a T that it became like our internal, the one thing that we found so much joy in asking, like, well, we got to ask about the Garbage Truck. When did you see their faces light up? It was like a switch.

Like, I think you made the observation, and it didn't make it into the piece, but their reaction and obviously discussion and excitement over garbage trucks very childish But their reaction was like like that times a hundred It was like telling your child you could have ice cream for breakfast. Will you tell a kid that like oh my god This is the best day ever. Oh Yes That was it was that kind of reaction.

It was like a child finding out they're getting extra dessert. It was pure unadulterated joy. It was like they're excited about two things. One, they're excited about migrant families being detained at the border, and a garbage truck has arrived to Washington, D.C. What joy. This is a new serious chapter in America.

We're excited about the garbage truck. We did get one of my favorite moments in these pieces was the lovely couple at the end. One dressed as Spider-Man. The other dressed as a traditional MAGA supporter with a fight, fight, fight t-shirt. And they were bummed, as most people were out there on the Capitol lawn that there was no event and when we told them that the truck was potentially there they got so giddy and the man in the Spider-Man said oh I saw one I saw one such joy and then when we slowed it down

to be like wait wait you saw a garbage truck not necessarily the garbage truck and he conferred yes that it was a garbage truck. And I'm so excited that I saw a garbage truck. To me, that was such a lovely comedic heightening and also an articulation of what that joy is. It's not even attached anymore to the trolling event of the garbage truck or Donald Trump's supremacy. It's attached to the sheer joy of seeing a thing. And that's the MAGA 2025, everyone. Yeah, it was the exact same kind of reaction to

my child in a stroller being pushed around Brooklyn and seeing an actual garbage truck and pointing truck, truck. It was the exact same thing except my child was two. truck truck. It was the exact same thing except my child was two. And to be clear your child's not in control of of or has a say in who should be running the the largest democracy on on planet earth correct? Did not vote did not vote did not vote did not donate money to the Trump campaign. Wow so that has no say. Yeah no say one other group I want to talk about um were the I think they call themselves the Magga Boys and they look like a boy band. We saw them from a distance

and it was like too incredible not to approach. Not only are we excited here in the U.S. but the world is excited. We're excited to get rid of the old administration, you know, just wipe the slate clean. You do that with like dope dance moves or something? No, we do that with crypto and AI. We only used a little bit of them.

But that was a fun interaction. What was your reaction? What did you think of them? And what do you think of their story? Remember, they kind of told you who they were and what they did or supposedly did. Yeah, I mean, it's fascinating to see the Donald Trump means different things to different

groups the the MAGA faithful are not monolithic and these guys these guys were dressed head to toe in bespoke MAGA gear like expensive red white and blue leather jackets. Those were nice jackets I'm not gonna lie they were pretty nice. They were nice jackets and they were they had. And they were, they had energy. They had, they had, they had MAGA bro energy and they told us their story, which was essentially that like they found this, they found this team, this MAGA team. They traveled around in a bus and they had converted their, their bus into a podcast bus that is hitting the country and bringing the power of talk, MAGA boydum, all of that stuff to change America.

When we asked them how are they going to change America and they said through the power of AI and crypto, big crypto guys, huge into AI crypto. They talked a lot about Bitcoin and all sorts of all sorts of cryptonomics with us. And I think when we brought up like, oh, well, the big news was the Trump coin and it made so much freaking money. We're like, oh, well, the big news was the Trump coin and it made so much frickin money. We're like, oh, how many of those did you guys get? They missed it. Their whole thing is Trump and crypto and Trump coin. They missed that investment opportunity and they felt so stupid and they should.

And then their excuse was we didn't think the Trump effect would be that big while they're dressed in head to toe Trump gear. Like if anyone should know that it's that big, you guys have like dedicated your life to this look. You are it. You are it. You believe in this man and crypto and you missed the moment because you underplayed it.

I feel like that missing that moment is like altered their course in some ways that we can't we don't know But like their lives would be very different obviously, but like I almost feel like it's sadly missing that moment I could see them like the group splintering and then blaming each other and Magga boys is over like you think this is that if I was we were writing that episode of TV about them That's what I think it would be. They missed Trump coin and then now they got to blame each other. It's really sad.

I imagine them like a traditional boy band, like an NSYNC or Backstreet Boy. You got your vibe of who's the Justin Timberlake and who's going to break out, who's going to end up having substance abuse problems, who's going to have a solo career in the Maga sphere and become a crypto rapper or something a year and a half from now. substance abuse problems, who's going to have a solo career in the MAGA sphere, become a crypto rapper or something, you know, a year and a half from now. You could really see it all distilled in those forms. You're the quiet one.

You're the one who's gonna get thrown out of your job in law enforcement. This is what, okay, I figured it out. And you're all going through divorces right now. Okay, that's the tie that bonds. There's a lot here, okay. You know what, a moment that stood out to me too is like the culture of MAGA is fascinating. And we were outside Capital One Arena and then we did most of interviews

and I went in, not to the arena, but the hotel and just watched most of that victory rally. And it's wild to watch these events played out over an hour and a half. You watch Kid Rock do multiple songs that are anti-deep state. And then he does Ba-Wa-Ta-Ba with Trump speeches intercut in between where he's wearing like a wife beater.

There's a guitar solo and the audience is filled of like 50, like of like thousands of 50 to 60 year olds, half dancing and half not knowing what to do. It's a weird cultural moment. Village people comes in. Like it's just, it's abrasively, it's abrasively like wedding band culture. Yeah.

To an audience that is not super into it, but is just excited to have been invited to the wedding. Yeah, and had a few cocktails, so they're going to dance so hard to these songs that they've never given a shit about. And traveling around DC that day, the Village People has now just become almost a trolling song. There's little rickshaws that were riding around trying to get people to hop on playing the village people I walked into a a pizza shop that for the inauguration had brought in a DJ to spin tunes

Who is playing? YMCA at a sad little pizza shop outside of Capital One Arena With a bunch of MAGA red hats sitting sitting there on dates, awkwardly eating mediocre pizza and listening to a DJ blast the Village People, where you're just like, are you guys even enjoying this? Is this what victory looks like? Is this what the new culture is? And I don't want to be pretentious

that the new culture has to live in some world of like Philip Roth novels or us just zoning out to the newest electro jazz but but there's something to what is there should be better music and there should be better music in America's like future we should aspire to something better than essentially a DJ in a pizza joint playing a gay anthem from the 80s. Right. Just want to finish and talk about the vibe at the mall on the second day. Because obviously there was not an event there.

But we went there knowing people would just show up because what else do they have to do? We were unsure where to go. There's 20,000 people I believe were getting into Capital One arena with a promise of perhaps seeing Donald Trump later in the day. But for the thousands, some people said there's hundreds of thousands of people who came to DC to see Donald Trump. They had no place to go.

And it was fascinating, the people we walked around on the the National Mall, like people were starting to congregate there. They had taken down the jumbotrons. They had taken out any place for people to hang. But Donald Trump was in the rotunda, and so people kind of made their way there as a pilgrimage. People were bummed out. They'd spent thousands of dollars to get there. We felt for it. We would see families there who came down to D.C. for the first time, spent a bunch of money to get there. And now they didn't know where to go or what to do. And so there was like a melancholy

on the National Mall. We ran into a few people who spoke to that. We laughed. We called it a calm. We felt it was somber, felt a bit like a funeral at times. Well, I mean, because we've shot on the mall a bunch. And obviously, we were there in January 6. And that day is very different.

And the energy is very different. But it was so odd to be there and see that many people being quiet. Like your brain, when you see that many people, you're kind of anticipating just noise. But it was really quiet. Like I think you touched on that on the piece, but still they had to go and gather somewhere.

So it's not like there's like great museums in that town that they can all go to. Yeah, I don't know. It's Martin Luther King's day. Maybe if there could be like an African-American museum that can help Americans reflect on our troubled history with racial inequality. Literally.

Maybe that would be a nice opportunity. Literally hundreds of yards, just a couple hundred yards from where we're standing. Not like another section of the city, like right there. You could go right there today. It is, it created such a fascinating organic situation, which is like the the MAGA faithful are always asking, where's the party at? And oftentimes it's in a freaking parking lot. But then a jumbo jet comes in and a man yells about immigrants for an hour and a half and they buy a silly hat. That day, nobody knew where the party was at. And so they meandered and they wandered. They didn't know

how to like organize their excitement. And the reality was the party was inside the rotunda with a bunch of rich people Who were taking care of the things that they want to take care of and they're they're left to sort of wander the National Mall among these monuments essentially lost So obviously we've been to Trump events when he's won and Trump events when he's lost and the ones were he lost were really kind Of hairy January 6th, even the Million Mag of March. Before that was in a way kind of scarier. But now they've won and they're feeling pretty good.

Did you notice a shift in the tone and the vibes for yourself at this event? People were definitely jubilant and excited to be there. I didn't see any vibes that were the anti-media vibes that we've seen in the past. I don't see that as a long-term solution to this tension that exists oftentimes out there in the field, but because this weekend was an example

of Donald Trump's vision for America, finding its audience and being celebrated, people seem just happy and didn't pay us any mind. We are part of the media landscape that they don't have to pay attention to. Now, weeks from now, as things perhaps don't go as well as they imagine they could go in their own minds, I imagine

sort of perhaps there's a tension that gets brought back into it. I think that's what happened with us last time, eight years ago. Again, I don't think, I think it's gonna be a very different four years than Trump's first four years. Yeah. But I do think, I do think this is just a brief pause in the tension that and the anger. I think the MAGA movement is based on anger and grievance aimed at something. And therefore, this was more of an aberration to what is MAGA as opposed to a new angle for it.

Yeah, absolutely. But just wait until Congress refuses to change the Constitution so he can run for a third term. They're going to be so angry then. Prepare yourself. I am. I'm already prepared. I've already heard the rumor that he's gonna run

as vice president next time around, which I'm like, oh, that makes too much sense, god damn it. It really does. Oh my gosh. Any thoughts going forward? I mean, we've covered Trump in the past. I think he took a little break from rallies, but still he can't resist doing them.

Any ideas about covering these kinds of events next few months? Or four years? We always talk about what we like about going to these events. It's a laboratory of ideas. We get to see the conversations that Donald Trump has in front of the media or the tweets about what actually resonates with his supporters.

What we discovered with this one, we talked since Trump was elected, we hadn't gone to one of these events before and so a lot has happened. And so we brought up things like Greenland and the Panama Canal and Canada. The Gulf of Mexico. New Mexico.

Oh yeah, the Gulf of Mexico slash America. We brought up a lot of these issues and it is fascinating to see what has penetrated. Like again, more often than not we see people create an argument for Donald Trump out of these things that they haven't thought about perhaps ever in their lives, but also stuff that doesn't resonate with them. They had no opinions about the Panama Canal. They were grasping at straws about Greenland. And I think as we move forward,

who knows how many of these events there will be, but I think we always are on the search to see what people actually are talking about and how the propaganda is working. And many times I think that's what we do out there. We're testing what propaganda works and what doesn't work. And when you're in a hotel and you see people cheer for Donald Trump saying he won the youth vote by 36%,

that propaganda is working. But then when you're out in the cold and you hear people have no idea what's going on with Panama Canal You see that propaganda hasn't taken hold yet And so I think we're gonna continue to stress test how America's propaganda diet is sitting in well I'm looking forward to it I would make kind of one ask of the universe and that would be like he's in Florida all the time

Yeah, do a public rally down there so we can go to Florida in the winter and not a Northeastern frigid city. Just do that. I couldn't agree more. I think we support Mar-a-Lago being the second White House. Let's do the events down there for the love of God. The Daily Show asks you, Donald Trump. Great idea.

All right, Jordan, thank you. A big thank you to Ian Berger. We're going to continue fingering the pulse together for Trump Part Two, and hopefully we'll be back here to tell some more war stories. This has been Behind the Show at The Daily Show. Thank you for listening. Explore more shows from The Daily Show Podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.

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