The Daily Show: Ears Edition - RFK Gets Carnivorous in New Food Pyramid & Hegseth Is Accused of Perfidy War Crime | Joachim Trier

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Jordan Klepper rounds up the latest indiscretions from Trump's cabinet, including Pete Hegseth adding perfidy to his collection of alleged war crimes, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer bringing back the good old-fashioned political sex scandal, and RFK Jr. making America heart attack again with his upside-down food pyramid, which Troy Iwata breaks down for us. Charlamagne Tha God is celebrating MLK Day like it's his last, because with this president, it might be. Thanks to the Trump administration’s backsliding on the national holiday, MAGA's disparaging remarks against Dr. King, and Elon Musk’s call for white solidarity, Donald Trump’s birthday is in the running to replace MLK Day. Award-winning director and screenwriter Joachim Trier joins Jordan Klepper to discuss his latest critically-acclaimed film, "Sentimental Value." They talk about the influence of early skateboarding films on challenging actors to take risks, developing a cast built on trust with Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning, using filmmaking as the setting to explore one family’s dynamics, and swapping antagonists for tender characters to bring understanding and hope into a complicated world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Let's get into it with another installment of The Worst Wing. What a bunch of losers. Let's begin with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense slash War slash Creeteen. Now, he's been accused of committing war crimes by droning boats up and down the Venezuelan coast. And yesterday, he was accused of an entirely new war crime. So, I hate to ask, what is it?

A war crime called Perfidy. Perfity? Is that where we're at with this administration? That we're studying up on the B-side war crimes? I mean, why do I feel like the Trump people got a crime of the day calendar and they're just trying to do them all? All right. All right.

Okay. So what is this terrible thing that we are apparently engaged in? Perfity, which prevents combatants from intentionally fooling adversaries into believing they are civilians. The aircraft used in the attack on September 2nd was painted to look like a civilian plane. Okay. All right.

So if you're keeping track, not only did Pete Higgseth bomb people he was supposed to arrest, he then bombed their wreckage again, and he did it with a disguised military plane. My man did a war crime triple double. They are going to hang his jersey up in the rafters next to Henry Kissinger's glasses.

Moving on to another person that's been dipping his toe back into the worst wing, Elon Musk. Now, he's back in the news right now because his AI GROC is in a bit of a controversy. The good news, it's not Hitler's stuff this time. The bad news is what's replaced it. Tonight, GROC, the AI tool from Elon Musk's company X, is under fire.

The app, which has an image editing feature, is now being used to create non-consensual and sexualized deep-bake images. GROC was producing, at least it does. inappropriate images every minute. People were commanding the chatbot to take people's clothes off, basically. Wow, okay.

This is a tough one. On one hand, you are violating the consent of women around the world. But on the other hand, where else are you going to find pictures of naked ladies online? We have the world's most powerful computers, and this is what we're doing with them.

I mean, when the printing press came out, monks like, okay, we'll get to the Gutenberg Bible. But first, let's make 40 copies of Greger's ass cheeks, all right? Get on it. I mean, is every Trump cabinet member spending their whole day actively destroying the country? I mean, I don't even want

to check in with the, I don't know, the Labor Secretary. Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-Jermer is under an internal investigation. Of course. Of course, you're under investigation. What, are you, are you crushing unions? Are you bringing back child

Are you declaring paternity leave kind of gay? What is it? What terrible thing is it? The complaint alleges she pursued an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, including several visits to an apartment and hotel rooms all traveling. That's it? An inappropriate relationship? Hell the fucking loo ya!

That's not evil? That's not even perfidy or what have you. That's the kind of throw. throwback scandal we had in the 90s. Kawabunga, dude, you know? Come on, tell me more. The complaint alleged is drinking in the office during the workday, including a reported stash of

champagne, bourbon, and Kalua. Okay. Kalua, huh? You're a cabinet secretary. You're not a college freshman building up the courage to lose your virginity at a frat party. You know what?

You have disgraced your office with your alleged personal conduct. And let me just say, thank you. It is such a relief to have a scandal based on a Trump official not doing their job, instead of doing an evil job too well. But let's move on from people accused of having affairs to something completely different. Health Secretary, RFK Jr. The man with a face for radio and a voice for closed captioning.

And now, yes, now, RFK Jr., he's telling you what to eat and drink if you want to be just as healthy as him. At a White House briefing, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced new guidelines that emphasize eating proteins, fresh vegetables, dairy products, and whole grains, while cutting back on processed foods and added sugar. On alcohol, Americans should limit consumption. In the best case scenario, I don't think you should drink alcohol. Ah, great news. We're not in the best case scenario right now. No, no, that's not where we are. No. If we're not, if we're not, we're not. We were in the best case scenario. Our health wouldn't be in the hands of a man who looks like a 1930s basketball.

So, if you'll excuse me, Secretary Lori and I will keep pounding those white Russians, thank you very much. But okay. All right, so lots of protein, full-fat dairy, and alcohol, if you're keeping up with the news. And I'm assuming there's a simple, logical graphic

to help understand the new recommendations. See the food pyramid here? It's upside down, a lot of you all to say. It was actually upside down before, and we just write it. He sounds healthy, yeah. I'm pretty sure this one is upside down, unless I miss remembering every pyramid photo I've ever seen. Don't worry.

Don't worry about the confusing food pyramid, because the health department is also spreading the word with the most dynamic, charismatic spokesman they could find. Three cheers for whole milk. Good stuff. Yeah. This is going to get the kids to drink milk. Timothy Shalamee yawn.

Kaisenat Pass. Oh shit, is that former HUD secretary, Ben Carson? Sign me up. Also, you're making Ben Carson drink a glass of milk, the drink that famously helps us fall asleep at night? Are you insane? If Ben Carson gets any sleepier, he could die.

You know what? I'm sure the guidelines to eat more meat and dairy is based on the best possible science and nothing else. We should note of the 10 people on Kennedy's team, half reported financial ties to the beef, pork, or dairy industries. Wow. Wow. You know what? In any other administration, I'd say half of the team had financial ties. But with the Trump administration, I'd say, wow,

only half had financial ties. You know what? That's three cheers of whole milk, you know? Good stuff. Good stuff. Oh. Mm-hmm. For more on RFK Jr.'s revamped food pyramid,

we go live to the Department of Health with Troy Iwada. Troy, so what's the latest? Jordan, health officials here are very excited. With the pyramid this easy to read, Americans should be lean and fit just in time for the coming race war. You know, I'll tell you, I'm surprised. I'm surprised to hear that.

I found the new food pyramid a little confusing. What's confusing about it? You just eat more healthy foods at the top of the pyramid, like fruit, and then avoid unhealthy foods at the bottom of the pyramid, you know, like fruit. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I mean.

I can't even tell what the bottom or the top is. Oh, God. Okay, Jordan, I can't keep explaining tops and bottoms to you. Listen, how many times do I have to say it? You'd understand if you'd understand if you'd You just watched heated rivalry. Oh, look. I'm just saying they could make the pyramids less confusing.

Oh, okay. Okay, all right. So the pyramid's not working for you. You want something different. Yeah, maybe like a different shape. A different wonder of the world. I got it. Okay, well, you're in luck.

Health officials have also released the food Taj Mahal. Again. Again, it's very simple to read foods serving as minaret structures. They should be eaten in moderation. you want to focus on the foods in the finials, Iwans, and the high pish talk. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What the hell is the high pish talk? Again, Jordan, you really have to watch heated rivalry. No, look.

Do they go to the Taj Mahal in heated rivalry? God, where don't they go? No, look, look. Can you bring that graphic up again? Did Fruit Loops lobby for this chart? Why is Tukan Sam in the picture? Okay, first of all, it's Dr. Tucan. and Sam. Okay? And she is in the photo because she specializes in nutrition. And she also donated $10 million to Trump's ballroom. Okay. I'm going to be honest. I find the food Taj Mahal

extremely hard to understand. Okay. Okay. Well, they did make some other charts for remedial children that you'll probably like. Um, this is called the food spiral. Okay. So each curve alternates a health food and an unhealthy food. The tighter the spiral, the worst of food. unless the spiral is counterclockwise. No, I'm confused and I'm dizzy now. Why do the words milk meat keep flashing? To remind everyone to have their milk meat. I'm sorry.

All of these visuals are terrible. Okay, well, maybe you're just not a visual learner. Would you like to hear some of the new FDA nutrition recommendation riddles? What in God's name is a nutrition recommendation riddle? Okay, well, here's one. It's my favorite. Eat this food, yum, yum, yum, yum. Put it in your tum-tum-tum. That's not a riddle.

That could describe every food. Wrong. Wrong. The answer is obviously milk meat. What is milk meat? Jordan, go watch. Heeded rivalry. Okay, try one, everyone.

God, give us his opinion. Don't go away. But I'm not the only one. Studies show that other people also have opinions. So, here with another installment of, in my opinion, is our good friend, Charlemagne the guy. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is right around corner, which means two things. One, if Al Sharpton sees his shadow, six more weeks a winner.

That's right. And two, we're about to get the worst party fly as you've ever seen. That's real, by the way, okay? And the party wasn't nearly as fun as they made it look. Personally, I'm going to be celebrating it like it's the last MLK day because the way things are going, it might be. NBC News has learned that the Defense Intelligence Agency has ordered a pause on all events. related to MLK Day or Black History Month. National Park Service will no longer offer free admission on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, nor on June 10th.

That's right. The national parks are going from free at last. Free at last, the bitch better have my money. And I know some white people out there are like, why do you care? Black people don't go camping. First of all, that's racist. Okay? And second, you're correct. But when white people go get a free day in the parks, we finally get to experience what it's like to be in an empty whole foods.

Okay? What I'm worried about is that this backsliding on MLK Day is just the first step toward getting rid of it altogether because if you don't know, it was a hard fight to get the national holiday in the first place. It took 15 years after Dr. King's death to become a law. And some of you may be thinking 15 years, but that I'm just the bill song only took three minutes.

Yeah, because he was a white bill, all right? They never told you. you that he was a bill to re-segregate golf courses. And you should see that bill's friend. Dude's been waiting on the Capitol steps for 20 years. And when Ronald Reagan was finally pressing in signing the bill in 1983, you could tell he was a little salty about it. Just two weeks ago, Mr. Reagan said he would have liked an unofficial holiday.

I would have preferred that, but since they seemed bent on making it a national holiday, I believe the symbolism of that day is important enough that I would, I'll sign that legislation when it reaches my desk. Yeah, that's the tone of voice that means fine, have your little holiday, okay? I'll tell the CIA to giftwraps from Crack as a present. No wonder Reagan got Alzheimer's. He was like, I'll make it a holiday,

but I want to forget that shit immediately. But even if Reagan caved, a lot of Republicans had a dream that one day they could turn people against Dr. King and that dream still lives on. Racist text messages allegedly sent by President Trump's handpick nominee to lead the office of special counsel.

One from January of last year, quote, MLK Jr. was the 1960s, George Floyd, and his holiday should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose whole life was a ditty party. Orangees and smoking and fighting and whipping up on women. Martin Luther King Jr. make a ditty party look like a Catholic convent school.

Lord have mercy. White people, if that guy is your one black friend, it does not count. Okay, a Diddy party? Like, whatever his faults, Dr. King wasn't Diddy by any scratch. But also, if Diddy manages to pass the Civil Rights Act, I'd let a few things slide. Not the domestic violence, but a thousand bottles of baby oil. Sure.

That bill would have slid right through Congress, right? The surprising thing about the rights defamation of MLK is just how unsurprising it is. Maga conservatives have traded in their dog whistle for a racism bullhorn. Don Musk endorses a post on X calling for, quote, white solidarity. White men are better at all of these tasks than the allegedly underprivileged communities that are replacing them. Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part. And we would live in paradise.

It's that simple. It's literally that simple. Yeah, I'm sorry. But when I hear pure, unadulterated racism like that, you know, as a man from South Carolina, makes me a little homesick, all right? I mean, they cooked up that hate speech just like my scrom-thurman used to make it, all right? And even if you call them out on it,

these races have friends in high places. In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. When the f*** have white people ever apologized for being white, okay? What are we talking about? Come on, man. White people barely apologize for being black on Halloween.

The only sorry I've ever gotten from a white person was, oh, sorry, I thought you worked here. All right? But there's still one reason to have hope that we can preserve MLK Day because all of us, regardless of race, color, or creed, enjoy that sweet three-day weekend. All right? And if MLK Day goes away, what are they going to replace it with? Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York introduced legislation to make Trump's birthday. a federal holiday. You gotta be kidding to me.

Yeah. Yeah, replace an MLK day with a holiday honoring Trump would be insulting, racist, and unnecessary. But you know what? A day off is a day off, okay? I mean, we've all seen Trump's face. We'll call it prune teeth. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Everybody, when we come back, Yon Kim Trin here, we'll be joining me. And screenwriter, whose latest critically acclaimed film is called Sentimental Value. Please welcome Joachim Trier. First of all, congratulations. It's a wonderful film. Thank you.

Getting many accolades. You just came back from the Golden Globes where Stel and Skarsgaard just won a Golden Globe for best actor in your film, correct? Yes, we're so proud of him. That is, it's amazing. It's curious in watching this film, knowing a little bit about your background,

you came up skateboarding, making skateboarding films. And I watched this movie, and Stel and Scarsgarz did zero Ollie's in it. Like, no nut punches, no nut anything. Did I miss something? You lost your edge? What was going on there? Mental nut punches.

You know, I think what I'm trying to do here is to give also a platform for actors to explore something, take some risks. So I started doing a lot of skate videos when I was a kid. That's what I did. I stood next to a handrail and saw my friends try some crazy stuff and maybe halfway break their neck

or land on their feet. And in a weird way, it's still the same thing I'm trying to do with actors. Have them do something risky and see if they land on their feet. Yeah. What does that look like? Is that happening in a rehearsal process?

It's interesting if you watch the film because you're also watching a director who's coaxing an actor at the time. Is that reflective of your experience working with those actors there? So just to be clear, Stelan Scars Guard, who in real life is a really nice

and kind man, plays a bit of an asshole director, a bit of a difficult father character. So I'm trying not to be him when I'm directing. But he's also a good director in the film. Yes. You know, so, but no, the process of that performance thing

is, I guess, first of all, cast right. Find people you trust. Then give them an opportunity to do their thing and give them some rehearsal time to get to know each other and be safe and it's all about trust to me. Yeah, that's what it's about. What's a set like for you?

Is it an intimate set similar to the ones that we saw in the film? Yeah, it is. It's a mixed energy. When the actors are present, we try to make it really soft and, you know, for them, for their individual needs. But when they leave, I tell my team,

it's like changing tires on the Formula One car. It has to be very quick. It's very expensive to make movies. And in Norway, we don't have an endless budget. So we've got to be really effective about it. Well, you're telling a story of a, as you said, of a director who is an acclaimed director who has family issues. As an acclaimed director, do you have to tell your family not to read into this?

It was interesting to show it to my family because I come from a film family, too. grandfather was a film director, both my parents worked with movies, my brother is a documentary director. So yeah, when they saw it, they were laughing. My younger sister said to me, it's like you've taken a lot of elements that I recognize and put them in a blender. And you're not throwing anyone under the bus, but I see it's you. She also wants her cut, right?

Exactly, yeah, the family cut. It's interesting when people are talking about this film, and I felt that as well, it's a very tender film, which, which feels bold in this day and age, which we sort of live in this age of irony where you don't see that in film so often. Is that a Norwegian thing? Is that an intention?

Did you want to bring something that felt softer into the marketplace? When you say marketplace, yes, I guess. But no, I think honestly, yeah, the world is complicated right now, for many reasons, political reasons, on societal levels in many countries. And I just have, because I have small children, also have this yearning for some hope and that there could also be a place in art to see the other, you know,

and not necessarily make polarized stories that deal only with antagonists and stuff like that. I try to understand people in the movies I make, even though this is a family story. It's about two adult women, two sisters, who are trying to reconcile their relationship to their father and how they deal very differently with it. And through that, I wanted to make, you know, a friend of mine said the other day, which I was very happy about it. You kind of made a happy ending for once, Jo Kim,

but it's not cheesy, and I felt kind of off the hook there. We're trying to do something about the baby steps in a family, where, you know, it's all the stuff we don't know how to talk about, that is really at the core of the drama here. I did a special recently, and I went to Oslo, Norway, and I was struck by many things about traveling to Norway, but the public sculptures, in Norway are so beautiful. There's a famous sculpture park that is both hilarious, dark,

and funny, angry baby statues. There's a person, Vigeland, I blame it. There's a father who's, like, catching babies that are up in the air. But also walking the streets of Oslo, I see a lot of statues that, unlike in America, the statues you see here are generals or politicians who have won wars. What I saw was a lot of families. There were a lot of statues of, like, a mother and a daughter, and it felt like culturally, I just saw art and family reflected more walking through Oslo that I see in an American landscape. Interesting. I never thought about it, but when you say it's probably true.

There is this kind of, and I also think the politics are geared towards that in a good way, in Norway. Norway, as any place, has its political problems. But what I think is good is that you actually get paid time off when you have babies and you have a guarantee of a place, a kindergarten or a child care thing, you know, from the government and stuff like that. So it's a communistic hellscape, is what you're telling me. Exactly, exactly.

We are not allowed to speak. I've been told to say these nice things about Norway. Not at all. No, it's actually, the, the interesting thing to think about is when you pay a lot of tax, like you do over here as well, that you get something back for it. Some health care and some child care. I don't know. And you're still allowed to speak your mind in public.

Isn't it interesting? Is that right? Yeah, don't tell anyone. I won't tell anyone. Is property cheap there? That's what I need to know. No, it's not. Okay.

So that's still complicated. There's the road. There's the road. The politician could work on that. Yeah. Another thing you do in this film that I think is a difficult line to walk is it's a film about the industry. But it's not, it doesn't feel like it's navel-gazy in the industry. Like, it's so, it's so, I think there's a tendency with a lot of films if you're going to make a movie about making movies,

there's such a reverence for making movies. I don't think this is dogging the profession, but I think you, I assume you had to be very careful with the ways in which you presented this so that an audience can relate to this and not just see it as the artists only caring about the things that the artist do. No, no, absolutely. I'm working with a co-writer for all my six films that I've directed called Eskilfogt, and when we realize Eskilfuked. V.

V pronounces F. Okay. V pronounces Eskilfitt. Eskilfok. Yes. This is the... Norway. Norway.

Okay. I'm fucking moving tomorrow, okay? Tell me that skill. He's my best friend. I don't want to laugh at television about his name. Poor guy. He's going to give me a hard time now. Lovely man, we're sitting there, we're making this story, and we're realizing, oh, we're making it about a film group of people, like the father's the film director.

Naval gazing, yes. Shameful, isn't it? So what we then try to do is to make it about family, make it about something that we really want to talk about, which is really how trauma travels through generation. And I think the only way to start forgiving one's parents is to realize they were kids once and what did they go through. And all those things where... And then we thought, oh, it's interesting

because in this family, the father is making a screenplay that is offering his oldest daughter, played by Renato Reinsvay, because she's an actor. And she certainly don't want to work with him. And then they invite this American actress into it, played by El Fanning, but she's playing the role of the daughter. So that's the setup.

But what it's really about is all... all that stuff about parents and children that we don't really have language for. So it was trying to get to family stuff through the setup of a film family. Instead of saying, ooh, film people are so interesting. Of course we are, but... Don't tell everybody that.

It's a movie about how do you communicate with your family? It's tender, it's loving. What Marvel movie are you gonna direct next? Yeah, what's the vulnerable... Is there IP that's interesting to you? Is there a Lego? Maybe the Scrabble movie could be interesting, Have you thought of this yet?

I think so. Wolverine gone soft. Wolverine gone soft. Well, I'll be there. I would watch it. Centimental value is available to rent or buy, and will be returning to theaters January 25th. Joachim Trier, we're gonna take a quick break.

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