The Daily Show: Ears Edition - The Precap | Ronny Chieng on Trump vs. Pope, and Moon Mission Optimism

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

This week's host Ronny Chieng sits down with Daily Show writer Kat Radley to recap the latest news, and preview what's coming up next. They unpack the latest in the Iran war, with Trump blockading the blockade, finding optimism in science with NASA's successful moon orbit mission, the weirdness of Melania's unprovoked Epstein statement, former New York mayor Eric Adam's newfound Albanian citizenship, and the FAA turning to gamers to try to fill the ranks of air traffic controllers. Looking ahead they'll preview the implications of the unfolding Trump vs. Pope Leo spat, and whether or not to file your taxes. -- To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/dailyshow -- Stream full episodes of The Daily Show on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/the-daily-show/ The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Comedy Central. Hello and welcome to the pre-cap, a daily show podcast where we sit down with this week's host to recap some of the latest news and preview what's coming up next. I'm Kat Radley. I'm a writer here at the show. And I'm joined today by your host this week, Ronnie Chang. Stay hydrated. This, for context, we're coming in after a week off. We had a spring break hiatus week.

and what a week to not be doing shows. There is almost too much that we've missed. Yeah. So let's get into, I mean, just the tip of the iceberg. Trump threatened to end the Iranian civilization casually on truth social. This is kind of old news, cat. This was last week. I'm just catching us up.

I know, but five things happened after this. But yes, sure, yes. He did threaten to end. civilization. On Easter. To be fair to him, he didn't mention what civilization, heavily implied to be Iran. But he wants them to open the straight of Homoos.

He did this on, I keep calling it Twitter, but it's not Twitter. I call everything Twitter. Yeah, everything's true. We're so old now. Yeah. Yeah, he did it on truth social, right? So he never actually said the words. Right.

He just posted it. He just posted it. Or someone posted it. Yeah. So, and then he didn't end it yet. No. So he backed out. It's still going.

So I guess all as well that ends well. So yeah, the civilization is still up and running. Yes. Ours is in question. Ours is looking down the barrel. Yeah. And yeah, I guess that's how we do geopolitics now. We tweet about annihilating everything about our enemies, I guess, right?

You're just wiping out entire cultures and civilians and wait and see if it happens. Yeah. It is weird because when we are off for work, I try to not be as engaged in the news as I am for work to actually like hang out with my family. Of course. And so when I would kind of maybe every two days jump in to see what's going on, I was like, oh, do I have to Google, are we going to nuke Iran? I was like, why is, I didn't read the news for two days and this is where we are right now. did I miss. I know. And also, you know, the first reading is like, you don't, you don't, maybe I'm stupid. I didn't read into nuclear threat in the first reading of the tweet.

The nuclear threat came in the analysis of it. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's, I guess that's kind of, you kind of got to be careful if you control nuclear weapons to not say you want to destroy a civilization. Because people might think you want to use nukes. Yeah, if we're actually going to like take him at his word, which we shouldn't. but if we're going to. I also love that the biggest defense of Trump is like, don't take him at his word. Right. That's what his allies say.

They're like, he's an idiot. He's not about. Yeah. He's just, it's just, it's just hype. Yeah. I'm like, I don't know, let's air on the side of caution. Right. And so no bomb, no, no annihilation.

He backed out. And then did the straight open? The straight is still in Iran's control. And now just, I think, yes. yesterday. He wants to send a U.S. naval blockade. So like he wants to blockade their blockade. Right, which is, you know, so yeah, he couldn't stop the blockade, which he caused. And so now he's going to say, now he's blockading it. If anyone's cock blocking, it's going to be us. We're going to cut block ourselves. And, you know, on a tactical, on a very Trumpian level, yeah, he, that, it's actually a weird thing where I guess.

guess it kind of works culturally in the cultural war. He can say like, no, no, no, they're not stopping us. I'm stopping us now. I'm stopping them from stopping us. Right. He has this pattern where if he were to just do nothing, everything would have been fine. Right. We would have been back where we were before.

He had just done nothing. But now he's trying to accomplish what already was in existence before he did anything. Yeah, he's trying to, now he's becoming open. opening the straight that was open already. Yes. That's what, that's what it. I was, I felt the same way when he first came into office and Biden had like done this work to like get the economy back up and running and all he had to do was nothing

and just like let it slowly recover like from the pandemic. And instead he just undid everything Biden did. And that's why like the economy is suffering again. I'm like, all he had to do was nothing and take credit for it. Right. But you had to just do stuff. Yeah, you had to do stuff. And I don't know what the.

Yeah. I don't know what. I don't know what the, I don't know how he's going to get out of this one. Yeah. But if anyone has proven that he's kind of Teflon and gets out everything, this guy is. He'll be fine. Yeah. We may not be.

Sure. But he'll be okay. Sure. Well, he did. So he sent in his number one guy, J.D. Vance to do the peace talks, which also failed miserably. So. One thing that's interesting is Pakistan was at the peace talks. And Pakistan's are the ones who announced.

the ceasefire. If you recall, that basically ended Trump's threat. Right? Because he said, I'm putting a deadline. If you don't open a stray, I'm going to end your civilization.

And Pakistan is the one that kind of did the negotiations or hosted it and announced that, okay, we researched ceasefire. So I don't understand enough about why. I'm glad they did it, but why would they bail out, you know? I think this JD Vance's

was to kind of like finalize the peace plan and look into how we would reopen the street and actually like end everything. And they couldn't come to an agreement, which is why now they're like fighting over who is still controlling the street. Okay. It's from what my understanding.

Okay. Well, thank you, Pakistan, I guess. Yeah. Pakistan is really... Really helping the USA phase. Yeah. I mean, okay, to be fair, maybe they genuinely thought that Trump might destroy everything.

So they were like, okay, we got to stop this. And I think they're also like, Israel is still attacking Lebanon. which was also supposed to be part of the peace. Yeah, that's also... Don't forget. Israel's also involved in this. It's a very tenuous, it's a very tenuous ceasefire.

Yeah. We're not going to solve peace in the Middle East. We're not solving peace in the Middle East. Well, we all do better than Trump and Vance will. So that's where we are right now. And we're kind of going to be covering that on the show today, probably. But your week, you're going to pick up posting tomorrow. And I'm sure there will...

still be shit going on considering concerning the Strait of Hormuz and Iran and the fallout of whatever crazy thing Trump maybe tweets tonight while we're sleeping. Sure. So the Iran war is kind of our ever ongoing thing, whereas, you know,

a week's go, there's always a little bit of Epstein files. Yeah. Now there's always a little bit of Iran war lingering. Epstein files is now lingering under the Iran war. There's like a different layers of... It's a layer cake. It's a layer cake of all. Bring shit. Oh, it's a little kick of shit.

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But some fun news, one thing that was nice to watch over the break was the story of the astronauts traveling around the moon. Yes. It seemed to be a story that people found joyful, inspirational, hopeful, and it was kind of nice to see people actually experience something together collectively and take joy from it as opposed to just doom scrolling all the time. Yeah, it's nice to see kind of the U.S. government. be responsible or something that kind of brings hope and joy. I hope people felt hope, you know. I mean, even in the 70s, in the late, in the 70s when they still went to the moon, people, apparently the mood was, people were kind of over it then.

Yeah. They were kind of like jaded about it because we did it. Like we did this. Yeah, but we haven't done a moon trip in so long. And, you know, it was easy to kind of be extremely cynical about it. considering how bad things are on earth and how much money, you know, is the, we need here to do stuff. And you see them kind of firing a rocket and you're like, what are you guys doing? We're doing this again.

And I got to say, I'm not one of those people. I'm very, I'm very inspired by it. I think watching NASA at work is watching America as best when it's being aspirational and inspirational. And I feel like that's America at its best. when it inspires people to literally reach for the stars in whatever industry, whatever that means for you personally, in your industry or your self-expression.

In this case, it was literally reaching for the stars and seeing people do it. And I guess every astronaut is woke because they were in space going like, the earth is beautiful and... Just being like introspective. Yeah, introspective and like, what are nations? And, you know, we're all on this rock in space floating.

Why are we fighting in a comment section? All we have is each other. Yeah. But, you know, I guess NASA and all these astronauts are just... And they're like, shut up, lefties. Yeah, shut up lefties. Anytime anyone shows any little bit of humanity and compassion, they're just like, oh, God. Woke, idiots, yeah.

I guess it was a fighter pilot. I guess he's a woke fighter pilot. You know, the astronaut, these guys are all test pilots. So he's a woke top gun. You have to be a badass to be an astronaut. Nah, he's woke. And then they went around the moon. And it's also interesting to see, like, you know, I'm a real NASA Apollo program nerd.

I actually watched how they, like, people rebuild the Apollo computers in modern times just for posterity. Just to see how the, I'm a huge dork with NASA. And so it's interesting to see how much technology has come. You see these astronauts, like, they went to the moon. America sent people to the moon with, like, less. computing power than like a Casillo Risk Watch, you know, and now they've got, we've got, they're like on their phones

I think they outlook, they had outlook in at the moon, they were like star linking you know, like the tech now is, can you imagine like what, 60 years improved? Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's been that long. Yeah, so, you know, they're still using, you know, Apollo 13

they're still using like pen and paper and the, you know. Yeah. And it's a stopwatch. And they they call back and people are like doing the math equations back in Using a slide ruler. Using a slide ruler. So technology has come a long way. You know, I don't know what this means for the future.

You know, hopefully. Hopefully this leads to something. But I'm just saying the humanities aspect of it alone, I think, was worth the $200 billion they burned up. Just to give humans a single moment of connection with people that might be different from them. Four people. Four people were cured. Four astronauts were cured of, you know, their hatred. Yeah, we just got to keep doing that.

We just got to keep doing that. Just send people out four people at the time. Eventually, we'll get to everyone on Earth. I unfortunately was kind of one of the cynical people because I do have the thought of, I'm like, well, we're destroying Earth. And, like, why not spend the time and resources and money into, like, keeping the planet we are living on alive instead of, you know, going into space? But if they can get the technology to maybe, like, if they can just pretend it's safe for, like, the building. millionaires, be like, I want to go to space.

Just shoot him into space. Oh, right, right. You know. And then submarine them, Titanic submarine. And then like, oh, my God, whoops. We don't know how to get you. Oh, whoops. Sorry, guys.

Yeah, the, I mean, I, let me quote some former president, some guy, I think his name was Obama. His name, like, he said something like, we have the technical means to solve a lot of the problems we're facing. A lot of the issues we have a political. Yeah. We have the technical solutions to, you know, most of these environmental. Oh, yeah.

We have the science to cure all of these diseases. Yeah, well, on track. To reverse the damage to the environment. A lot of the knowledge in science is out there. We're just letting, yeah, greed, corporations and political differences get in the way of it. We could be living in a paradise, but a couple of evil billionaires don't want us to be. So going from the moon to Epstein. Yeah, because we're going into the next layer.

Next layer. It's always there. This was also, if, you know, the astronaut story was joyful, this was also a joyful moment of news. I didn't get what the hell this was. So. Nobody did. So Melania came out unprompted and gave a speech to talk about her relationship to Epstein, denying ties to Epstein, denying that she, I believe, was a victim of Epstein. And the number one reaction is, what are you talking about?

No one even was thinking this. No one asked this. No one's wondering about this. And it was such a formal speech, too, which she doesn't normally do. Right. She made a big deal out of it. Right. Which, of course, just led everyone to asking more questions.

Right. Be like, okay, well, now we want to talk about it. No, what the hell is going on? So I really hope this does lead to some juice. There are stories about, you know, there's, I want to say, a guy from Columbia who asked Trump to deport his wife so he could get custody of his kids. Yeah, that guy. And the wife that was deported knows Melania from their modeling days. Sure.

And so she has a lot of dirt. And so as retribution, she was like, all right, well, I'm going to spill all the beans because fuck you guys. So that's kind of the internet theory of what's behind all this. Sure. As usual, very sunshines and rainbows. In the Trump world, everything is very just above the board and positive. Not dark at all. And so she made this speech.

And now we all like what's going on? And we're just waiting. And this is classic like, you know how people, you know when you talk to civilians who aren't comics or, you know, maybe even not in show business? Like,

they don't know how to, they overreact to other people overreacting. So like five people overreact to you. And then you as the performer, you start overreacting to them. Yeah. Because you're not a professional. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And so this to me just reeks of that. It's like what happens when like a Karen is able to, to like have a press conference basically. Yeah, yeah. Because it's like, what are you telling us about this stupid? You know, this sounds like some kind of like WhatsApp gossip. And then you're like, no, no, I need to clear the air in front of the whole world.

And we're like, okay. And I wonder who on her team was like, yes, it's a good idea. Let's do this. Well, that's what I'm saying. This reeks of everyone saying, you don't have to do this. And her going, no, this is the right thing to do. Sunshine is the best disinfecter. And then people are like, no, you're misreading this whole situation.

Yeah. Because obviously no one would, you know, any junior PR person would be like, this is weird. No one's talking about this right now. Yeah, this is weird. So. I do though. If it would be great, if just a few days from now a big juicy bomb drops, metaphorical bomb about, you know, what is lying beneath this? Yeah.

Like what's like, what is she, what is she getting in front of? What is she protecting? Also, what's so funny is that like they, you know, they cynically started. I ran war to distract from Epstein. And she's like, oh, wait, you got back to Epstein. She's like,

oh, honey, that's why you started the war? Oh, so sorry. She's like, we just did a whole thing to get past this. And you're bringing up. That's why it bombed Iran. God damn it,

yeah. And she went into this thing. And also, by way, it's just like, you're saying, you're saying this. But there's photos of you of Epstein.

There's photos of that video of your husband. There's all this stuff linking your husband to Epstein and you, you know. So it's like, why are you, you know, Why are you bringing this up? Yeah, because it's very easily debunked.

Yeah, just hire me as your PR. I won't like this happen. First, the White House. Roddy's got your back, Melania. I got your back. Just give him a call. Just deny it. Just don't even go on.

Stop going on the internet. That's really, it's just, do it. It's really just get off. Blackout. Social media. Yeah. Some close to home news. New York mayor, Eric Adams was granted Albanian citizenship.

Yeah, what's up with this dude, eh? I don't know. It's so fun to watch. I don't know if you've been following. Zoran and like he's been posting a lot of social media. He just did, I think it was either on Easter or it's marking his first 100 days. His first 100 days in office, he walked throughout the city just saying hi to people. Oh cool.

And so it was videotaped and everyone was just so excited to meet him. Sure. He's just being a regular guy meeting, you know, the constituents of New York. Okay. And he's really getting shit done. Okay. And then you're like, yeah, what is Eric Adams up to? Oh, he's moving to Albania for.

I don't know. Legal protection? I don't know. What is this? I mean, I'm in favor of being a citizen of the world. Yeah. And this post-nationalist view of everything. Okay, you lefty. Is that left? I don't even know. Yeah, okay. If it's left, sure. I'm just saying, like, being able to, you know.

Come and go. Yeah, my home is everywhere. Totally. But what the fuck is this? Because, like, it just reeks of, like, yeah, you're trying to evade the law or something? Yeah. Like, you're afraid of getting prosecuted. perhaps and you need sanctuary somewhere. So what are you?

No one's assuming, oh, he just wants to see the world. People are like, oh, you're escaping something. Yeah, you're escaping something, man. I get it. I mean, you have passports in your pocket. This must be his, like, third citizenship, I feel like. Yeah, because he... Turkey or something.

He had a good relationship with Turkey for a while. Yeah. I think he's just kind of... Any other person would be like, good for you for traveling. Yeah. But... Listen, if it gets him out of New York and keeps him out of New York, I'm also okay with it. This brings me to the next point was, uh, what, what are,

Who were the best New York mayors? I mean, I just say Mamdani. I think LaGuardia was good. He's got an airport. He also done something good. He had an airport. Apparently he would go on the back of trucks and look for potholes and fill them. Oh, cool.

That's why everybody loved him. That is one of the things Mom Dani is doing. Oh, he's doing? Yeah, he did like a whole pothole filling spree and has filled, I want to say, at least 6,000 potholes so far. Yeah, that's a LaGuardia thing. Not the one on my street. hopefully just gets into the you know the blockchain and someone

110th in Amsterdam there's a really thing no no don't tell me about your address don't tell me by address it's kind of far it's it's like oh don't tell me by address okay delete that out just send it directly to mom dummy but bleep out my cross streets also LaGuardia apparently for some weird reason he refused to land at what was JFK Airport

LaGuardia did yeah and so he kept landing at this other location I can't I'm But, but basically that location became LaGuardia Airport. He just didn't want to land at the other one. And so he kept land. But he was a beloved. I think Prime Giuliani was very beloved.

Yeah, in the... Prime, I'm talking. Not the leaking from his head, Giuliani. The, like, dry and coherent Giuliani. Yeah. Prime Giuliani was good. I love that LaGuardia story because LaGuardia is a great airport now. It's in a much more convenient location to get there from Manhattan. Yeah.

LaGuardia. I mean, LaGuardia Airports is sent a... some money because honestly it became it went from it was the biggest turnaround it was the word of the joke yeah it's the worst airport to now it's literally the best it's i go there and i'm like i don't even need to book a flight i'll just hang out it's a good airport beautiful lighting bars and restaurants oh great yeah go to la gordia aircraft you guys people uh terminal see gorgeous love it speaking of airports speaking of airports this is a great segue so there's an air traffic control shortage, which we know. Some of you may have been feeling it lately. I haven't flown in a while,

so fuck that. I fly a lot. Have you felt it, the long lines? No, I actually, thankfully, skip, I missed it because I happened to not be flying for a few weeks and then I missed the whole awfulness of it. You make everyone land at a different place. It's not going to be Chang Airport. It's going to be Chang Airport. It's the Hudson River. I was just flying yesterday and this weekend, and it was fine. Okay, good. So the FAA is specifically trying to recruit gamers to come work for FAA's air traffic controllers.

I guess because they think they're already good at, I guess, you know, computers, control, sitting for long periods of time. They think the skills will translate to the job somehow. But in reality, being an air traffic controller is really high stressful, really high stakes because you're responsible for landing. So is Call a Duty. Yeah, that's true. You know, people coming after you on screens and you're sweating and your girlfriend's yelling at you.

You have to handle a lot. Your mom's telling you to go do a laundry. Like, you need a good temperament. Yeah. It is weird in America that FAA is such a, like the air traffic controller is shortage is an issue. You know, for a country that flies so much. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's really just a matter of, because they were asking for, you know, better hours so they weren't exhausted. Wanted more money. Yeah. It's working too long and more money, which they deserve it because airplanes and air travel is something that is universal. Usually, generally everybody uses it. It's not like for one demographic or another. At least in the course of a year, I feel like everyone in America is going to fly at some point.

Right. So it seems like it's an issue that everybody would get behind giving air traffic controllers more money. It seems like a very easy issue and an easy win for the Trump administration to do. Yeah. But they're not. They're not. And what's weird is for me, I'm always like, how come they don't just,

the people who need this are the airports and the airlines. Yeah. So they should, you know, just pay. I'm sure the airlines would be like, yeah, we'll pay in for it. Yeah, like Delta could kick in a few more. Yeah, kick in some money for this. I mean, that's who needs it. Is the airports and the airlines.

But, okay, that being said, recruiting from gamers, your pool are gamers in America. I love it. I love the idea. I go give them some employment as you said the skill set is there multitasking sitting in a chair for a long time looking at a screen you know analyzing it's I guess in a weird way it's a video game except if you lose people die get them out of the house get them out of the house you can have all the mountain dew you want they don't tell you that but fAA has made it clear you will have all the mountain do code read you want yeah if you join their task force they also already wear that thing

All the time So you're halfway there You might as well do You might as well be like Serve your country and get paid Looking at the screen and Just want them to confuse the two It'd be like

Alright we got him shoot him down No land the plane land the plane A different game Yeah America I don't know like The environmental side of me is like Everyone should fly less Yeah

But the reality is everyone in America Takes flying for granted so much Totally like you know America is a country that flies around And it's also a big country. You need to kind of fly around to get stuff done. So I remember looking into this, and I think, like, the FAA is, there's only, like, one school. Oh, really?

Yeah, there's one school. And then they're trying to make it a college program, but, like, there's only, like, one college that's kind of trying to do that. So. That is wild because, yeah, air travel is kind of necessary to live in America, assuming you, like, I have family in California. You know, like, I have to fly to go to them. It's very first world to be like this, by the way. No other country is this dependent on flying. But I think, but this is a big country.

It stretches from Atlanta to Pacific. You need it. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Our country is too big for lots of reasons. This is one of them. This is one of them.

I'm so disgraceful. The country that invented flying. We can't figure out the freaking air traffic control. It is crazy. Or the guys who invented it. Come on. You're telling me we can go to the moon and we can't freaking tell a plane when to land on the ground. Yeah.

Guys. Or make you not wait six hours to go to all. Albany. Yeah. Ronnie Chang solving America's problems. We can go to the moon. That's my, that's my thing in America now.

Guys, we can go to the moon. We can freaking cut this TSA line in half, okay? So some things that will probably pop up this week while you're hosting, just kind of overnight, this battle, this little beef between President Trump and Pope Leo. Yes. Has started to come to the surface where they are,

Trump has spoken out Talk shit about him He's fighting back Yeah Trump posted an AI Picture of him as Jesus This is something that might

Develop throughout the week Oh it could end tonight When he tweets something else But Pope Versus Trump This is what they should be doing At UFC White House We want to fight the Pope

This is the fight I want to see Because Trump versus the Pope It's a good matchup You know Like the representative of Jesus on earth versus, you know, I guess the Antichrist. Who doesn't want to see that? It would really put Christians in a tough spot. Like you have to pick a side and they claim to be, you know, pro-Trump.

But this is who you're going to pick. This is literally, yeah, Jesus versus who you think is Jesus. Yeah, it's alien versus predator. To me anyway. As a atheist outside religion, I'm like, yeah, this, to me, watching this is like you know a strong voice for

reasonableness on the right versus we know what you know Trump is even more reasonable voice on the right so so that's why it's like who are I feel like I guess I feel like the right the Christian right is now having to organize right I can feel them kind of

trying to organize to see who they back yeah because they also a lot of the Christian right they're not Catholics so they don't really connect to the Pope the way other Christians do. But I can't imagine that they would still go against the Pope. You can't root against the Pope

in this. Especially when we see what the Pope is saying. You know, he's not even saying anything that's like, you know, remotely violent or anything. He didn't even address Trump. He just was like, peace on earth, please. Yeah, as a former Catholic,

I'm currently atheist as well. But as a former Catholic, is kind of the only issue that Catholics got right was their stance on the poor and on immigrants. They're very pro-immigrant, help the poor, help those in need. Yeah, they're very like, you know, take care of the sick, take care of the needy. That's kind of the only thing that I can agree with them on. And this Pope, I think, is specifically very, like, pro-immigrant and very vocal about it. So naturally, he and Trump are not going to get along. Yeah. What's also interesting is that this is not this is this is this the first american pope yes so that's the other thing about

this is that he gets it yeah Leo knows what's up you know pope Leo yeah yeah he's like we like he's the perfect guy to like you know tai chi this energy from trump because he knows where it's coming from and what the vibe is he's like i get this and he's just totally tai chiing it so it throws you when you hear him talk and he has the american accent i'm like oh okay i was expecting you know No, he has a Chicago accent. Yeah. Yeah. My friends and I over the weekend, we, like, got together for dinner.

We were just talking about, like, who should run in 2028? Like, who can be the president? And one of them was like, the Pope. Oh. The Pope could run for president. And I was like, fuck, that's actually a really good idea. Oh, yeah. He might be the only person who could beat him.

He's American. I didn't even think about that. It's, you know, it's not, there's no rule that says he can't, you know? Right. There's no rule that says dogs can't play basketball. So I'm like, oh my God, the Pope should run for president. That's very interesting. I wonder if he has U.S. citizenship still.

And I wonder if I don't think there's anything in the Constitution that says you can't be a citizen of another country and still be president of. Right. Or like technically the leader of another country because he is the leader of Vatican City. Yeah, there's nothing in the Constitution that says that, I think. But he could just fake an 11th commandment, be like, oh, no, I. God. I got 11th command. It's all good.

Yeah, wow. Okay. Yeah, that's a good idea. It's not my idea. My friend told me about it. Look,

that's the answer. I'll hold off on endorsing that, but it is an interesting idea. I'll give you that. And also, again, this goes back to wow saying this is a good fight because this is a good matchup. Yes. You know,

there's no, like, I think the Catholic Church is the equal of, you know, of whatever incoming from Trump, you know, it's not like he's punching. down on this. Yeah. Yeah. He's a

power player and yet they literally disagree in every way, shape, and form. So, yeah, Trump responded to the criticisms by tweeting by basically shitting on the Pope, called him a loser, which is kind of hilarious. And then he followed up with the AI picture of himself as Jesus. And

this picture of Jesus might be, you know, this is a good argument against AI. Yeah. Right here. You know, if someone can just do this, and, you know, just... Because someone might think it's real guys. Can we get some art people like Jerry Saltz or something to analyze what, like, is this good art? There's a lot going on because you got an eagle, you've got soldiers, what looks like a devil angel. There's eagles flying with, like, fighter, top gun.

It's Tom Cruise in Top Gun Maverick. And then there's the devil. There's something going on in the middle. There's something going on in the middle that's like floating shadowy characters. You got a nurse from the 1940s? There's a 1940s nurse. The Statue of Liberty made it. New York represents.

Then there's an older soldier. Or is that a farmer? That's a farmer. That's a farmer slash veteran. J6 guy. He's a J6 guy in front of the capital. And then a kid, I got to say, a little gender ambiguous, actually. Okay.

Wow. So woke. A little woke. And then Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein being cured in the middle. No, that's him like erasing his memory. Do not mention my name. You will not mention my name. Yeah, there's a lot going on here.

But all very presidential. At the end of the day. At the end of the day. Thank you for truthing this. I don't like to base reality off of who I see on the internet because I feel like it gets the vibe wrong a lot due to interference. But I will say I think the Christians and the, um, mega people whom I do

follow, they I think they, they are saying like, this is bad, like don't desecrate the image of Jesus and don't, you know, I guess like why are you fighting the Pope? But most importantly don't

desecrate the image. That's a big one. But they're also like, they're doing it like, this is wrong guys. Anyway. Yeah, but will it actually change how they vote or what they do? Yeah. versus the fury that they would have if, let's say, you know, if I did something like that or if, you know, if someone else... Oh, they'd come at you.

Right. If someone they hated did it. And so I guess to me, that's the intellectual dishonesty, right? Oh, totally. You're not objectively looking at the facts of what's going on. You're just kind of basing off of your tribe or not your tribe. Yeah. So, anyway, I think objectively, anyone who claims to be Christian should not be supporting really anything he's doing right now.

Objectively, you're Christian. Isn't it fair to say you maybe don't want to be supporting a guy who's, painting images of himself as Jesus and, you know, telling the Pope he's a loser because the Pope said, please have peace on earth, you know, objectively, but maybe I'm not Christians, I don't know. Yeah. Okay. And that's not even the worst things.

We need more Buddhism in America is really what, you know. I would, I would do that over literally anything else. Oh, also coming up this week. So it's going to be tax day. Okay. During, I think on Wednesday while you're hosting. Great, everyone's favorite day. It is interesting because there is a big movement this year.

People saying they're not going to pay their taxes out of protest because of what their tax dollars are being used for, mostly the war in Iran. And I'm always looking for ways to protest or boycott because I feel like personally I think our economic power is the best chance we have at fighting back, even though it's not really being used. Very effectively right now. No, unfortunately. But I will admit I did pay my taxes this year. because I have a family and I don't want to go to jail or give them a reason to put me on a list. Right. I think being associated, you know.

No, you did the right thing. Yeah. Don't feel guilty about following the law and paying taxes. I do, though. No, pick taxes. I don't know. I have this bit in my last special about how everyone, like, if you're right wing, you tend to, you know, code as very patriotic and loving your country. But then you also code as hating to pay tax.

And I was like, if you love your country, wouldn't you want to pay tax to your country? Like, you want your country to be poor? Did you pay your taxes? Oh, hell, yeah. Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, you, they'd come after you immediately. Oh, bro.

Yeah, that, no, I got to be airtight on that. You just got your citizenship. I overpaid. I overpaid. Yeah, you can't pay taxes. Yeah, I voluntarily overpay. Do you expect to get that money back? No.

So now we've reached a point in the podcast where we do a daily show and It's something that we talk about doesn't have to be politics or news related something we've watched read Listen to been talking about arguing about just something that's been on our minds lately so Ronnie do you have a fun daily show and tell I went to Rochester this weekend to do shows yeah I had no expectations And Rochester was was empty The city was empty the shows the shows the shows were full With everyone at the show? The city looked empty and then the show was full.

That's where everyone was. That's where it was. A very charming city and I went up there and not dilapidated, but just empty. Just empty. Like buildings abandoned but not in good shape, not broken down, but no homeless people, no drug users. It would just look empty. And I went to a bookstore. I got a book about the 92 presidential election, which was interesting.

you know, recapping that. Very instrumental election in American history in 1992, Bill Clinton defeating Bush at a very interesting time. Did you already read the book too?

No, I haven't read it yet, but I knew the history of it, but, you know, this was written by people on the ground, so I've been reading that book. I think it's called, it's the Quest series,

it's by Newsweek. It was by a group of journalists who were covering the presidential election at the time. And it's written very interesting, if you're a political junkie, it's an interesting book. It's thick though. It is a bit of a thick book. It's a thick. It's a thick. It's one of the thick ones.

And then next to the bookstore was a cigar bar, which you don't really see anymore. Yeah. Because it's illegal to smoke indoors. So, you know, most people, they got the license like 50 years ago or something. This was this guy. He got the license 50 years ago. I went inside. And I just had a cigar with this dude, the owner. It's me and him in this bar at like 5 p.m. in the afternoon. No, sorry, 4 p.m. in the afternoon. Niceest guy. That's so fun. Yeah.

funny he told me about the comics he like he the guy was like you know 60 so all his references were like you see jack mason jack mason yeah i know of him but you know not recently yeah not recently but i know of him and um he uh anyway my point to all this is that um in america um you know talking to people face to face well renew your faith in the country and the people um don't judge everything by the comment section uh or your algorithm i think talking to people face to face is often the cure for a lot of, I think what is ailing us right now. That is nice that you take the time when you're on the road to actually do that, go out and explore the community and meet some people.

Yeah, I don't know. I make it a point to walk around the city before the show just to get a vibe of it. Also, because I genuinely like exploring America. I want to see what it's about. And my conclusion is that there is no one in America. It's just New York and L.A. Every other city I've been to is empty. It really, especially when you live in New York and then you go visit, like, I would do the same

thing when I'm on the road. I would want to try to explore. I think the one time I did a show and went to Nashville. I booked myself a walking tour like on that Sunday to like do a walking tour of the city. Yeah. And there are people out but it's just nowhere near compared to. You remember when we do road shows, daily show road shows and we'll go to a Milwaukee or something. And we're in Milwaukee, a major American city. Yeah. You're walking around like there is no one here. Yeah. You like go to a restaurant for like brunch. Yeah. And they're like, yeah, we have a table right here. You're like, Oh, you do? Okay. Yeah, I know.

And so I'm just like, Rochester, like, hey, I'm not, this isn't, this isn't walk-a-woke, whatever. You know, immigration reform, you know, get people in, have a system to get people in, blah, blah, blah. I'm just saying, like, people can fit in Rochester. Okay, there's a lot of space in Rochester, New York. And I think they need people to rent these buildings. So let's get in some, you know, there's room for people here. If you're immigrating here, start at Rochester. Yeah.

There's a lovely vacant building apparently in good shape. There's many vacant buildings. There's quite a few vacant buildings and lots of sidewalks, but. I'd say my show and tell, I've been trying to stimulate my brain. I started reading the complete works of Dostoevsky. Oh, shoot. I'm just kidding. No, I'm not.

I'm watching the traitors. The opposite. I have recently discovered everyone's talking about the traders. I know, like, I'm a huge out-and-coming fan. I should have watched it long ago. So I finally watched season four It's amazing And then one of our fellow writers here Lily

Was like watch Australia Season 1 So actually I wanted to tell you this So the Australia Traders Season 1 I'm currently watching that And it's really good Oh

So what makes it good It's like It's not celebrities It's real people So they just kind of plucked regular people It's a nice little sample of I'm assuming the Australian citizen

Are you sure they want celebrities Or just people you don't know I got celebrities you didn't know. No. I mean, I wouldn't know if they are Australian celebrities, but I'm pretty sure it's just real people. Okay. And it is very entertaining.

Okay. So if there's anyone out there who has yet to watch the traders, and I'm not like a reality show person. I don't watch reality TV. Really? Okay. I like, I kind of think it's a waste of time. But? But I watched this one.

I was like, okay, this is good shit. Okay. I think my friend is on the American one, Eric Nam. Which is a Korean guy. Oh, Eric. Yeah, Eric. He has, oh, he, I don't want to give anything away. Yeah, I think he had a good run.

He played a pretty pivotal role. He's a singer-songwriter. Singer-songwriter. He's a great singer-songwriter. Oh, dude, you should watch his season because he makes it pretty far, and he has a pretty key kind of plot point in the show. Well, you kind of just spoiled it. Nope.

There's so. You did spoil it because you said he made it pretty far, so I know he's not going to pretty far could be Final 10? No, that's not. I read. I did a poker read there, so. It's still worth watching because you got to. to see what goes down with him.

Okay. It's worth seeing. I heard about this. Or you could read Dostoevsky. Or you could just watch Australian Traders Season 1. No, I'm not trying to help my brain in any way, shape, or form. I'm just going with it. Okay, that's all the time we have for the precap.

I'm Kat Radley. Catch Ronnie Chang hosting The Daily Show this week on Comedy Central, Paramount Plus. And right here in podcast form on The Daily Show Ears Edition. Thanks, guys. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.

This has been a Comedy Central podcast.