The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Shutdown Sparks Cringey Meme War & Trump Punishes Blue Cities | Kevin Nguyen

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Ronny Chieng covers Day 2 of the government shutdown: Republicans and Democrats are dueling via sombrero and cat memes, Trump is going after blue cities with a vengeance, and his administration is surprisingly joyful. Plus, Michael Kosta joins with expert analysis of MAGA’s unconventional shutdown strategy. White House advisor Thaddeus Mandible Crowley excavates America's ancient laws to justify whatever insane idea jumps into Trump's head, be it fornicating for national security or banning uggos. Author and features editor at The Verge, Kevin Nguyen, sits down with Ronny to talk about his new book, “Mỹ Documents: A Novel.” They discuss the story’s timely premise about “a far-fetched dystopian future where the government is detaining people for no reason,” the title’s nod to the Vietnamese language, the importance of learning your family’s history, and how the book tackles nuanced ideas around Asian American identity. Keep it classic and cool this fall—with long-lasting staples from Quince. Go to https://Quince.com/DAILYSHOW for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for new. This is The Daily Show with your host, Ronnie Tang. Welcome to The Daily Show. I'm Ronnie Chang. We got so much to talk about tonight. Republicans are making everyone Mexican. Democrats are losing the content wars,

and we find out if layoffs can make you horny. So let's get into all of it with our ongoing coverage of Shutdown Showdown 2025. Locked up, locked down, and closed the business. It's day two of the shutdown, and only the most essential service. are still operating, Social Security, Medicare, and that department that makes up causes for autism. Today, it's minestrone. You hear that? Don't give pregnant women minestrone.

It's got too many different things in it that the body can't handle. Now, for the Republicans and Democrats, the most important part of the shutdown is coming together and blaming the other side for it. President Trump has been posting AI videos of Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero. And now, unfortunately, Democrats are hitting back with their own videos. It's midnight. The Republican shutdown has just begun.

Can you see me? Well, of course you can't because the Republicans turn the lights off. Open the door, Mr. Speaker. Open the doors of Congress, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Republicans? It's Mike Johnson in here? Hello, Republicans. No Republicans on the train.

Hello, Republicans. Have you seen any Republicans? No Republicans here. No Republicans here because they all died from second-hand embarrassment. Look, Democrats aren't as good at video content as they are sending emails, asking for money. So, I don't know, let's try something else. Yesterday, Democrats posted a Kitty Explains meme blaming the GOP for the shutdown.

Democrat kitties want you to have health care. Republican kitties do not. Wow, that was also not good. But still, better than whatever Batman villain Chuck Schumer is turning into. I mean, my guess is the penguin. But you know what? They made a substantive point in there.

I'd like to see Republicans' counter-argument. Republicans, of course, responded with this. A kitten. Wearing a sombrero. God damn, the sombrero meme is undefeated. It's like an unblockable combo. With this meme, Republicans will never have to make a coherent point again. It's unstoppable.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz added his own version. Hey, Macarena. superimposing the image of on 44 Democratic senators. And it's over. Once Ted Cruz joins in on something, it's dead. Actually, you know what? Can we also get him a babou-boo? Because I'm kind of sick of those things.

Now, you might be wondering why Republicans keep putting sombreros on Democrats. Apparently, it's part of their talking point that Democrats shut down the government to help illegal immigrants. What they have done instead is to shut down the government because we won't give billions of dollars to health care funding for illegal aliens.

They prioritize taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens over keeping the government open for American citizens. Democrats, the party of open borders, transgender for everybody, lawlessness in our streets, are shutting down the government in an effort to appease the radical left. These Democrats are demanding nearly $1.5 trillion in spending for an agenda that includes, includes health care for illegal aliens and much, much more.

Holy shit. When you wake up from surgery, you will be a transgender illegal immigrant. I mean, that ad was so scary. I was expecting the girl from the ring to crawl out of it and then become the boy from the ring. But this is a pretty big accusation, okay? Democrats say they're shutting down the government because they want to preserve health care for tens of millions of Americans.

But Republicans say Democrats just want to give health care to illegal immigrants. So can someone just clear this up for me? Republicans pressuring moderate Democrats by claiming they are pushing for health care for undocumented immigrants. But their accusation is dubious and refers to a small group of benefit recipients

whose status is considered. considered lawfully present. Federal law explicitly prohibits undocumented people from receiving aid. So in other words, some of the health care that Democrats are trying to get for Americans might also trickle down to some people who are not Americans.

You know, when you're showering and you aren't trying to wash your feet, but it just kind of sort of happens by accident along the way, which I actually just learned is how white people wash their feet. They don't make a point. They don't lift up their feet and wash it. They just, if it happens, it happens.

Anyway, that's what this shutdown is about now. Now, look, this isn't the first time the party shut down the government and blamed each other. Okay, but this time, Republicans aren't just trying to blame Democrats. They're trying to punish the states they come from. The White House has already started targeting projects in Portland. to Democrats, blocking $8 billion for energy projects in 16 states that voted Democrat in the last presidential election.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it would withhold $18 billion in funding for transportation projects in New York City, home to Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. Wait a minute, right there, right? You're telling me every New Yorker is gonna suffer because of your beef with Chuck Schumer

and Hakeem Jeffries. Hey, President Trump, don't forget there are things in New York. you care about too, all right? Like Wall Street, Fox News hosts, your current wife and the home she lives in by herself for some reason, right? But you know what, Trump? New York doesn't want your money anyway, okay?

Our transportation is just fine. Our rats are getting so big you can ride them to work now. And, by the way, it's not just Democratic states. This dude is going scorched earth on his own government. White House budget director Russ vote warned mass layoffs could come within the next two days. President Trump is teasing that I have a meeting with Russ vote. He of Project 2025 fame to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political scam.

He recommends to be cut. But if good can come down from shutdowns, we can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things. That's right. This guy is excited for a shutdown. And that's the Democrats' fatal mistake. They assume that Donald Trump cares about the government he's the president of. You think you're playing a game of chicken,

but he's playing a game of, let me crash into your car. And as you heard, the guy who's driving his car is the White House budget director and future Paul Giumadi Oscar role, Russell Vogue. According to Senator Mike Lee, this guy might be even more excited about tearing down the government than Donald Trump.

Trump. Ross Vote, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment, preparing this moment since puberty. Look, I know puberty can get weird, but this guy's balls dropped, and he was like, oh, man, I want to fire people in the government so bad. President Democrats. This is probably the only 13-year-old in his. who hit a copy of the federal budget inside a penthouse.

I mean, I hope Democrats have a plan for this because letting this guy have control of the federal government, I can't think of anything scarier than that. Oh, shit! Oh, my God. Sorry, I stand corrected here. For more on the Republican shutdown strategy, let's go live to D.C. with Michael Costa. Michael.

Michael, it seems. It seems like Republicans are really enjoying this shutdown. They sure are, Ronnie. I'm outside Russell Votes bathroom. Once he's done jerking it in there, they're going to get to work slashing the government. Okay. It's gross. He's jerking off at work?

He's excited, man. He's been dreaming about this moment since puberty, although it has been an hour. Hey, Russ, take it easy in there, bud. Slow and steady, wins the race. Okay. Well, I guess I don't understand why the Republicans are so strict about any money

going to illegal immigrants. Like, isn't that worth it if it helps give Americans health care? Absolutely not, Ronnie. That is not the American way. Obviously, we'd all love medical treatments for our diseases, but is that worth risking an illegal

immigrant getting free aspirin? No way, Jose. Locianto, me amor. Biblioteca. Okay. Okay, listen, Michael, me personally, I think I would prefer the medical treatment for all. God, you just don't get it, Ronnie. So let me give it to you straighter than my boy, Russell, giving it to his left palm in there.

Here you go, Big Russ. America is built on two principles. One, liquor before beer, you're in the clear, which is not really relevant here. But two, we'd rather everybody get nothing than one, illegal, get anything, whether it's health care or air traffic control. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on, hang on. Do you just air traffic control?

Yeah. Americans don't want our taxpayer dollars going to safely land a plane that illegal immigrants are on. But what if Americans are also on that plane? Well, then it would be an honor to go down on a blaze of taxpayer savings watching Jumanji 2.

And speaking of all, speaking of all, of fire. Hey, Russell, finish it up there, man. If you pull that thing off, they'll make you switch bathrooms. Costa, this is so stupid. Oh, it's stupid. Was it stupid to homeschool myself, so I didn't risk being educated alongside some

legal asylum seeker? No. Because me, a proud citizen of the UFA. I think it's the USA. It can be either. The bottom line is, yeah, maybe in America you go bankrupt. over medical costs, but at least everyone else does, too.

And if you don't like that, you should have thought of that before your appendix burst. And speaking of Burson, I better go. I need to get Russell a copy of the federal budget to help him finish the job. Russ, I'm actually worried now. Michael Koss, everyone. When we come back, we find out that Trump finds his loss, so don't go away.

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on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash daily show. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash daily show. Welcome back to the Daily Show. Despite what some people think, Donald Trump hasn't been acting lawlessly. He's just been acting on the laws that people didn't know still existed. Luckily, we found the person in charge of finding those laws.

I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 18-0, of 1798. Think of that. 1798, that's when we had real politicians that said we're not going to play games. We have to go back to 1798. Who has two thumbs and helped Trump find that law? As the kids would say, twas I. My name is Thaddeus Mandible Crowley, and I am the White House's senior advisor for super old laws.

When President Trump needs to dredge up some old forgotten law to justify whatever deliciously insane idea has popped into his head, they call me! So you want to leak laxatives into the L.A. water supply. Invert the Harvard campus into a mud wrestling arena. Surround Charles Schumer's residents with anti-Semitic tigers. How delightful! Let me see what I can find.

I knew right from the start that Donald and I were going to click. One of his first executive orders references the 1807 Insurrection Act. Most presidents focus on passing new laws, but Donald is special. He knows that everything he needs is already here. Somewhere. That's the beauty of America. Thousands upon thousands of laws that never expire, ready to be deployed hundreds of years later

to justify the ethically dubious whims of our Mercurial leader. Oh, yeah, that'll work. And I am intimately familiar with all of them since I was alive when they were written. How old are you? How old is the night? How old are the dreams of a nation?

How old are... Okay, never mind. Some laws I'm keeping on standby just in case Donald should need them. This one here from 1832 says the president can fornicate with any state legislator if he deems it necessary for national security.

This one from the Civil War era, good times, gives you immunity for crimes committed after the solstice if your child's height surpasses eight feet. Way to go, Barron! And this one here from 1762 just says no uggos. Who want that at some point? Some people say, Therius, can't you just look these laws up on the internet? And to that, I say, ha! Good luck finding this in your tangled with. World Wide Web.

It's a scroll of ancient laws that I personally stole from the tomb of an Egyptian witch. Saving this bad boy for the third turn when Trump really lets loose. But that being said, yes, sometimes I'll use croc. Damn, you devil machine! Ah! I usually get one, maybe two semi-fascist requests per week. Today's been pretty quiet though. Your message to communist Zohan Mandami.

Well then we'll have to arrest him. like Aunt That he's about to be busy to the archives, Both All of you. Is it glamorous working for the president? Not really. But serving this administration has been the honor of my life. Hello, Mr. President. Oh, Mr. Stephen Miller. What can I do for you? You need a law to justify feeding immigrants to other immigrants. Now that man, total weirdo. Gives me the creeps.

Cookeh. When you come back, Kevin Witt will be joining me on the show, so don't go away. Welcome back to our daily show. My guest tonight is a features editor at The Verge, an author whose latest novel is called My Documents. Please welcome the one and only, Kevin Wynn. These all plants? People still read.

Thank Buddha that they still read. Thank you for writing a book so people can read it. My documents. Little Vietnamese on the top here. You want to explain yourself? Yeah, it's a tie-ag critic. Why you're trying to trick people into the title here? Well, it's Vietnamese word, actually.

It's pronounced me. And it's more like if you're Vietnamese, there's like a little bonus for you. It's a little Easter egg here. A little Easter egg. And the rest of us, we just look stupid saying my documents. Right? And you're like, you're just laughing to yourself.

Just laughing to yourself. And this is in reference to America. Oh, yeah. It's the Vietnamese word for America. Right. You think it's just a reference to like Windows 95. Right. Yeah, and what, I mean, you want to explain what the book is bought?

Sure, yeah. It imagines this, like, far-fetched dystopian future where the government is detaining people for no reason. Oh. Oh, okay. I've completely imagined this. Right. I mean, you say that, but you did imagine this,

because you wrote, this came out earlier. this year. Came out early this year. So you wrote it. I mean, I think you started writing in 2018. Yeah. Actually, I was writing this. I came up with this idea in the throes of the first Trump administration.

And Trump had evoked even back then the Alien Enemies Act, which is basically like the threadbare piece of legislation that allowed FDR to incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II. So I just kind of imagine, like, what if it happened again? today. And because I'm Vietnamese, I made it happen to Vietnamese people. Right. And what's the outcome? Is it good? It's not great. Yeah. They don't love it. What made you, like, in the book, it's a real, I mean, I did read it. It's like explorate, it's a real, it's a, it's a, see, like the little, uh, I put little notes in it. Just to make you believe me. See, look, I really, see, look, it's like pencil markings here.

Yeah, see. No, but I mean, I'll get to some of the structural. things in this book, which I find very interesting. I mean, whatever, I would say before I forget. Like, one thing that's interesting about this book is that you kind of, the chapters kind of get shorter and shorter the more you get into it. And I was wondering, like, did you do that for like a dumbass TikTok generation? Because I got to tell you, I hate to admit it, but the shorter chapters kind of made it like, oh, I can, you know, I can sneak another chapter in there. And it's like watching a book real. I don't know if that means.

No, it's, I mean, it's partly a way to make a book propulsive is to shorten the chapters. An original version was like 100,000 words, and I sent it to my agent, and she was like, you got to make this shorter. And the next version I sent her was like 150,000 words. The one you get to read today is closer to 80, so it's like much more reasonable. Yeah, and I mean, it's still, you know, a complete story. I don't know what you took out from the 120,000 word version. And it's kind of intense, man, because it goes, I mean, you open on this very personal story about your, it's based in reality.

about, I assume, the grandmother character here, who was fleeing Vietnam, and it's her experience, and you're right from her perspective, kind of. It's loosely based on some family lore, and then it goes in its own direction. But I don't know, it's just this interesting thing where thematically, it's about what happens when you don't learn your own history.

A bit of the foundation of this is, you know, I didn't learn about Japanese American incarceration until I got to college. I took a course about it. And, you know, like, I think in middle I did an entire year about World War II and what happened to Japanese Americans didn't come up even once, not even for an afternoon. And I remember being so embarrassed about that, but also, you know, if your education system will not tell you these stories, how are you supposed to find them out? And then, you know, similar, like my parents are immigrants. They fled during the Vietnam War.

There are certain stories like they won't tell me or didn't tell me for a long time, which is, is they're right, you know? but at what point, like, are we as a younger generation supposed to be curious about that? What happens when we aren't curious about that? So the book is about four young people who, I think, in a way, start very incurious and are forced to become curious about their history. Sure.

And, I mean, you're drawing direct parallels between the Vietnamese refugee experience and the fictional future. Yeah, the fictional future that hasn't arrived yet. The government is just disappearing people for no reason, for their political. political beliefs. I'm glad we're so far from that. Yeah, I mean, it's just all of the book.

This is like sci-fi. It's almost unbelievable. So, I mean, what, I don't know if it's even easy for you to talk about, because I was reading this book, and I mean, you're not named in this book. You are writing a work of fiction, I think, but I just reading, I was like, oh, this dude is working through some shit right here, because the stuff you're going through, like, I feel like a lot of Asian people go through. I mean, not even necessary Asian-Americans. This idea of, like, you start off, even me in Malaysia.

We start off, like, kind of not knowing much about the history of what happened there. You kind of almost reject it in a way, for whatever reason. Maybe it's because you're kind of, you know, trying to be, like, you're more a fan of Americana culture, so you're trying to, like, focus on that. You're geeking out on American stuff. so maybe you ignore whatever cultural history you have. Whatever the reason is. I'm just saying that we all have this weird journey

where we ignore it most of our lives and then everyone hits their 20s and then everyone goes to college and then they get this like, oh, what the hell is going on in Asia? And then you start to read up more about it on your own and then you're like, oh man, I haven't been connected to this. So I feel like...

Yeah, I think when people are young and maybe this is just us, but you want to fit in, right? And so just like learning about your individual history is not an appealing prospect and yeah, like when you say like I'm working through some shit like, I don't know, have you tried to find a therapist lately? It's like impossible.

It's just way easier to write 100,000 words of fiction. No, I don't look for therapists. I'm trying to monetize his mental illness as long as I can't. That's all this is, honestly. Comedy? Yeah. And look how fine got me. So, yeah.

You guys are You don't know what you're cheering for, right there. You're cheering for no therapy. But, yeah, so there's, I mean, in this book, you also kind of, you kind of mock this idea of AAPI in America, this AAPI voting block that was created. I mean, I don't think I'm giving anything away, but there's a... It kind of started as a joke for myself when I was writing,

the piece of legislation that sends all Vietnamese people to camp is called the American Advanced Protection's Initiative, which, you know, the acronym is AAPI. And I think even, like, as we got closer to publishing, I was like, is that, like, too on the nose? Is that not funny? Would the right wing really go after, like, acronyms of all things? And then as it was coming out,

like Trump just wouldn't say a single sentence without muttering DEI. Right. Right. And so, and I mean, that brings us to what I find interesting about this book is that you kind of, you're not tackling it from this kind of traditional, left progressive. You're trying to be really nuanced with the views in it, I think.

Like, even this AAPI thing where you mark it. I mean, for me, sometimes I find it weird, like, what do you mean, AAPI month? Like, I'm Asian all year. You know what I mean? So what we get this month and, like, don't, you know, don't. It's kind of condescending in a way sometimes when they're like, oh, yeah, we got the,

here's the Asian comics. Let's trot out these fucking people will kind of make it on the, you know, any other platform. And it's like, well, at what point does, you know, sell, like, this kind of diversity thing become token and condescending and, you know. Yeah, I mean, the worst part I think our month is May, right? So, like, we lead right into Pride Month, which is, like, clearly the better month. Right. It's just so much more fun, you know. We're just, like, doing, like, dumpling-making classes. And then, like, Pride has, like, a whole parade in, like, every city. So where do you stand on that, you know? Because this 8-P month has a voting block in America.

It's like, one of the lines in this book is you go, like, one of the only things that seems to, unfortunately, unite Asian Americans is racism, as in people being racist to us. I mean, I just think that, like, you know, even though some people might think, like, you and I look alike. We don't. Our language is different. Our food's different. Back in the, back in the old country, we hate each other. Yeah. You know what I mean? But here we're, like, forced to unite against.

I know. But we're just, like, grinning through it, right? We do hate each other, but yeah, I'm forced to put you on my show, and then you're forced to, you know, you're forced to write a book about it, and then we all, yeah. They wouldn't put me on during, like, a Josh Johnson week. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, where do you stand on that in America, you know?

Like, at the same time, like, I think there is, like, there is strength and solidarity, but sometimes in that, I think we lose the individuality. You know, my day job, I work as a journalist, and then, you know, like on the side, I write novels, and I think about like the goals of each thing, even though they are both ostensibly writing. I think in journalism, you try and take like a lot of muddy ideas and try to clarify it for the reader. And I think a powerful thing you can do in fiction is you can take assumptions or things people thought were clear and muddy it up. And so I think like in terms of Asian American identity, that's something that the book really challenges and muddies up a lot. And what's, I guess, you know, I give away the conclusion.

Is there a conclusion to that? I mean, it's... I don't think there's, like, a strong takeaway. You know, it's not... The point of the book is not abolished the, you know, phrase API. But I do think we should challenge it, and we should really think about individually what it means to be Asian American

or if that's even a useful term anymore. Sure. And as someone who spent a lot of time, like you spent basically... I think you wrote this for five years. Yeah. Thinking about this scenario, thinking about the history of Asian Americans, and unfortunately, you know,

know, the book kind of catching up to reality now. Like, where do you, I mean, what, do you have a takeaway for what we? Can you fix everything, please? Please fix it. The answer is really, it's actually on the last page of the book. You'll just have to go buy the book and see what's in for us. I don't think there are, like, strong takeaways.

You know, when I started writing it, I was like, I did want the book to be really grounded in reality. You know, a lot of the forces that are at play, you know, We've been living under the Department of Homeland Security for two decades. Some people act like ICE just emerged during this second Trump term. It's been with us for a very long time. You know, we have this history of Japanese American incarceration. We have the legacy of the Vietnam War.

You know, like, and ICE has been detaining migrants. They've detained millions of migrants over the past decade. Like, what's happening right now has escalated, but it is not new. And so I think the goal of the book was to kind of draw like a line between all of these things. They seem like disparate forces in America, but I think they're actually all quite part of American history. Yeah. And, I mean, I guess your hope by writing this is, I mean, what, sorry if this is a hacky question, but that you get asked a lot, but like what, I mean, what do you hope people take away from this? I mean, I was just trying to avoid therapy.

But I don't know, I think it's... Well, now you put it on us, so now we all need therapy after the reason is... No, I mean, the book is about a family that, like, muddles through or struggles and survives through this scenario. So I think there is something kind of hopeful about that. It's about challenging the assumptions of your life and your family story and your family history and, yeah, how we connect after that. Well, hey, thanks for, you know, contributing to trying to get people read again. I really appreciate this. Thanks for taking the time to write a book and putting your own history into it.

I think, you know, if nothing else, I hope people can get, I think it's nice. that you put in the story of Vietnamese refugees in there at the start. It's very touching. It's very heart felt. The very first chapter got me sucked in already. So thanks for sharing that. And thanks for writing the book. And thanks for coming on the show. Yeah. Thank you. My document from neither. It's available now. It's Kevin Wayne, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after this.

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