The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trump Delivered on His Campaign Promises, But Only to Himself | Alexandria Stapleton

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Josh Johnson gives a progress report on Trump’s first year in office based on his campaign pledges to generate more jobs, make Americans rich, improve healthcare, and protect free speech. Naturally, the only person to benefit from these promises is Trump, who now has everything but a normal-looking hand. Lewis Black takes on Gen Z’s nostalgic penchant for the past and the ridiculous “throwback” fads the younger generation is reviving, including cigarette smoking, “dumb phones” to help them think thoughts, tramp stamps, and the mall. Emmy award-winning documentarian Alexandria Stapleton talks to Josh Johnson about producing and directing the Netflix docuseries, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” including her shared concern with producing partner Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson not to indict the entire Hip-Hop culture along with the music mogul and how the sense of trepidation among the documentary crew and interview participants has shifted since the release of the series and the arrest of Sean Combs. They also share their personal theories of how Combs, a master of reinvention, might try to rebrand himself upon his release and how Stapleton hopes the series will lead to more conversations that can help push Hip-Hop, society, and justice systems forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You're listening to Comedy Central. Those trusted journalists at Comedy Central. It's America's only sorts for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Josh Johnson. I'm Josh Johnson. We've got so much to talk about tonight. We grade Trump's first year on a scale from one to what the hell. Lewis Black is sick of your retro bullshit. And later on, the director of the Diddy Doc will be here, and let's just say I have a few questions, comments, and concerns. So let's get into the headlines. This week was a major milestone, because Donald Trump made it a whole year, and I got to give him a hand. Literally, I think he

needs a new hand, because that hand's got one unopened pickle jar before it slides right off. So tonight I thought we'd do a progress report, you know, what Donald Trump promised during the campaign versus what we got so far. We'll see how. how he grades out. I'm guessing maybe like an A-minus. Does that sound good to y'all? Okay, damn, fine. A-plus. Then I didn't realize y'all were such fans. Let's start with maybe the biggest promise Trump made during the campaign. I'm telling you, you're going to become very rich. You're going to become rich as hell. You're not going to know what to do with the money. Yes, we will.

It'll be 10,000 years before I run out of ideas for what to do with the money. You give me unlimited money and I run out of ideas for how to spend it, I'll just start eating it. Americans will always figure out what to do with extra money. Have you ever seen how many cyber trucks we've sold? That shit can't any of you drive over loose gravel and I still see one every day. Now the question is, one year later, did Trump make us all rich? Considering your nana ass, the whole family subscribed to her only fan so she could pay the light bill, I would say no. If I'm being honest, I don't know anybody who's feeling richer.

Going to the New York Times, Trump has used the office of the presidency to pocket more than $1.4 billion for himself. Wait, $1.4 billion off of being the president? That's so rich. It makes every other president look stupid. Like, what was up with George Washington's wooden teeth? You broke, bitch. You should have had them molars iced out. So I'm going to say that promise was not kept, but you can't win them all. Let's look at another one. So we're going to have more jobs than we've ever had.

You will have more jobs. We're going to create a lot of jobs. We will take in so many jobs. Millions and millions of new jobs. We're going to do it like nobody else. Now, did we get millions of jobs? Well, if by jobs, you mean the foot jobs your nana is given to pay the electricity bill,

then yes. Look, job growth across the country is actually been down. But there's one specific block of Washington, D.C., where job growth is through the roof. President Trump, of course, serves as the chairman of the Board of Peace. Donald Trump, naming himself chair of the Olympic Task Force. Trump is also the chairman of the Kennedy Center. For the first time ever, the president served as the on-stage host of the annual honors event. He touted himself as the acting president of Venezuela.

Whoa, Trump, Trump, leave some work for Steve Harvey, all right? Trump is taking everybody's jobs. He's basically AI with even more f***ed up hands. Hey, hey, don't look away. This man needs hands. But this is crazy. Trump promised us riches. Then he got rich. He promised

us jobs, but then he got all the jobs. Wait. What if when we heard all of Trump's promises, we thought he was talking to us, but maybe he was just talking to himself? Because if you look at it that way, he might be keeping

his promises. Like, look at health care. He's been promising to improve health care for like a decade now. And things are so bad, the only health care most people can afford is watching the pit and hoping Noah Wiley tells a patient

how to treat eczema. But Donald Trump has more health care than he knows what to do with. President Trump says he has no idea which part of him doctors were looking at when he had an MRI in October. What part of your body was the MRI looking at? I have no idea.

You have no idea? Are you getting so many MRIs they just blend together? Like, do you just get in tubes that people tell you to? I'm starting to think that if you got close enough to Trump, you could probably just give him a colonoscopy. This guy's presidency is going great for himself. Just look at free speech. We will restore free speech, and we need free speech in this country.

Yes, Trump promised a golden era of free speech. Not for you. They'll put you in jail just for posting memes. But Donald Trump, his speech, who, it's so free, it seems like it's lost in the woods. She's a documentary, yes. Only if you buy a Tesla. Aberrejan, go-nol-F. So it's gonol-F.

Is that a proper pronunciation? I would say Abraham, but it's so much nicer when you say Abraham. Acidav... Well, let's see how we say that. Asadam... Minifin. Pergoverous. Pergoviris.

As a linguist, translator, and cryptologic technician. Whoa. Listening to Trump makes me feel like I'm having a medical event. Which is especially bad because he didn't fix health care. But you know what? Maybe my favorite

Trump promise isn't even about a specific policy. It was deeper and more meaningful. We're going to dream big again. We haven't been dreaming big at all. No, we haven't. But now, Donald Trump is dreaming enough for all of us. We're showing a picture now of Donald Trump with his eyes closed,

battling to keep his eyes open, struggling to stay awake. Slumped in a chair in the Oval Office today, appearing to nod off. He may have dozed off a few times. Hey, hey, don't laugh at him, all right? Leave that poor man alone. He got like nine or ten jobs. So bottom line, when it comes to Donald Trump, there's no you in us. And once you understand that, things will go a lot better for us.

And by us, I mean Donald Trump. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, unfortunately, we're all in his hands. Look at it. When we come back, Lewis Black finds out what the kids are up to, so don't go along. Just to generate a presentation. Grab your docs, your permits, your moves. AI levels of your pitch gets it in a groove. With your timeless, draft design, deliver, make it sing.

AI builds the deck so you can build that. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat. When a news story falls through the cracks, Lewis Black catches it for a segment we call Back in Black. For as long as I can remember, kids love going retro. Now it's Gen Z's turn. They're bringing back everything. Low-rise jeans, final records, the measles.

Hey, but it doesn't stop there. Gen Z craving nostalgia. It seems that fascination with the past now extends to an unlikely trend, smoking. The generation known for shunning alcohol and other unhealthy habits appears to be lighting up again. Wow, these kids are woke. Black Lungs Matter! I'm surprised Gen Z even knows how to hold a cigarette. I thought all they did was scroll, tap, and whack off.

But now they can scroll, tap, and whack off. But now they can scroll, tap, and whack off with emphysema. So why are they suddenly trading their douchebag bapes for cool guy's cigarettes? It's factors stealing the shift including nihilism about the future, the online, quote, messy girl aesthetic, celebrity culture, and the Gen Z's high level of anxiety. Wow, holy shit. That's why Gen Z is smoking? I just did it to stick it to the surgeon general.

What a prick. But good for you, kids, and don't listen to the haters who whine about lung cancer and throat cancer and a drastically shortened lifespan. Trust me, the way things are going, those are pros, not cons. Still, leave it to Gen Z to kill that sweet nicotine buzz by throwing in some of their idiotic. terminology. There's even an Instagram account called Sigfluencers created by Jared Oviet. Sycluencers, I guess in the simplest terms, is a mood board celebrating hot people smoking cigarettes. Wow. Are you shitting me? Sigfluencers, or as I used to call them,

my parents. And since when does smoking need a mood board? The great thing about addiction is you're always in the mood. Point is, you don't smoke cigarettes because some Sig fluencer tells you to. You smoke cigarettes because you're going through a custody battle, and unfortunately, you won. But cigarettes aren't the only trend these young organ banks are resurrecting from the dead.

Flip phones making a comeback. Many Americans want to ditch their smartphones for so-called dumb phones. So this is my way of taking back my attention span and deciding what role technology plays in my life. The idea is to have a phone in your pocket that isn't constantly. You know, I've been listening to nature a lot. I've been connecting. I've been thinking my thoughts. Of course you've been thinking your thoughts. Who else thoughts would you be thinking?

I mean, if you were thinking my thoughts, you'd be thinking, this woman sounds like a fucking idiot. But have it your way, Gen Ziers. Use a flip phone. Hope you like 8-bit dick picks. Of course, once you reach my age, the penis just becomes low-res naturally. When I unzip my pants, my body plays the sound of Miss Pac-Man dying.

So cigarettes, flip bones, at least those trends are preserving your dignity. Lerer magazine says that tramp stamps are making a big comeback with the kids. Tattoo artists say it's coming back in a big way and it's actually a power move for women. One saying getting a lower back tat allows women to reclaim a negative stereotype. You go, girl. Tramp stamps are back. Better luck next time, labia piercings.

But if lower back tats aren't called tramp stamps anymore, how will I know if someone's a tramp? Well, I guess the only way to tell is if they're sleeping with me. And you might be wondering where those kiddos are going to get this above the stink ink. It's at the most retro place possible. Malls are making a comeback, and it's all thanks to Gen Z. Recent surveys finding that they visit malls more than any other generation. I love going to the Apple store and buying an iPad with a friend.

Jesus. How many iPads are you casually buying? How about giving the Chinese kids who make them a chance to rest? But that's right, Gen Z is hanging out at the mall. And a whole new generation is about to experience Panda Express diarrhea. I used to hang around malls all the time

because I was sleeping with Annie Ann. And yes, she could be. twist herself into a pretzel, and you better believe it made the sex way worse. But in a good way. And since malls are back, you know what that means? I can start buying my clothes at Hot Topic again. Hell Satan. But I got to give these kids some credit. I think it's great that young people are exploring the past. In Gen Z, when you discover cocaine, pick up that flip bone and give Uncle Lou a call. I'll have you snorting like a pig.

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only at BetMtm. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games like Plinko, Clifhanger, and The Big Wheel into fun casino games. Features. Don't forget to download the BetMGM Casino app for exclusive access and excitement on the Price's Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the Price's Right Fortune Pick,

only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2-600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. Ben-MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Daily Show. My guest tonight is an Emmy Award-winning documentarian who directed and produced the Netflix

docu-series, Sean Combs, The Reckoning. Please welcome Alexandria Stapleton. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. I watched the documentary immediately. I watched it all the way through, and this thing will make you believe in the devil. Like, it is crazy how much he got away with and everything that happened. And one of the main questions I had was like how you got the footage that was him clearly trying to film his own comeback before he got arrested.

What happened? Yeah, it's really meta, right? This footage dropped in my lap and I watched it and I watched it with my producing partner and we were up all night and we were like, oh my God. It was very surreal that at the height of his, you know, everything is on fire around him, and he's got his life on the line. And this is what he was doing in his hotel room. Yeah, it's crazy. It felt almost like watching someone talk about not slipping on banana peel,

but there's a camera attached to a banana peel that's like right underneath them. Because the whole thing just, the way that you told the story, because I feel like so much of what's happening, in the doc is things I knew, some things I didn't know, but a lot of things that I knew and I guess I forgot. And I feel like that says something about how we view celebrity or how we view power that like, oh, you can kind of just take a couple on the chin to the public.

Right, right. Well, he's a genius at marketing himself and marketing, you know, his artist, Bad Boy, he's an American mogul. And I think that, you know, the underbelly of Sean Combs' world is, is a dark and mysterious and disturbing place, you know, for a lot of people. And so we had four hours to kind of take you on that ride and to kind of trigger memories and, you know, experiences that we all, you know, I was a teenager in the 90s and grew up loving bad boy and his artists.

And to actually see what was going on behind closed doors was frightening at times. And so you compiled all of this. Did you make specific choices on who to interview? Because, you know, you could talk to Shine, you could talk to Mace, you could talk to people that are mentioned in the doc but aren't on screen as much as, you know, the people that did sit down. Was there specific choices that went into who you interviewed and why? Well, you always kind of cast the net wide. And so that was what we set out to do. I obviously really wanted an interview with Sean Combs

and went out to him on multiple occasions and thought in my head that I was going to have the opportunity to do that. Wait, I'm so sorry to interrupt you. You went to Shaw College. Not physically. No, not physically, but still, just you were like, hey, I'm making a documentary about you that you won't like. Hey, I was like, my job is to present all sides, right?

So, you know, even though 50's name is attached to this, you should still, like, it'll be authentic. You know, if you participate, like, we'll print it. I mean, we have your footage. So, yeah. Well, he didn't know that. He didn't know that at the time. But, yeah, that would have been the Holy Girl.

It was the Holy Girl for me. It didn't happen. But there were a lot of people that I talked to off camera. There were a lot of people, you know, a lot of people were really afraid for their lives, their livelihoods, you know, to be on camera and to participate. We started this before there was even an indictment. So it was like the dark ages of the story, you know. So it wasn't like he was in jail and people could be like, okay, you know, I can talk now.

He was still out in the streets of New York. Jeez. So are you nervous? I am in New York again. No, I, yeah, of course. People were sharing with me really, like, very disturbing things about, you know, know, what this guy allegedly is capable of.

And so by default, you know, taking all of that in was nerve-wracking. And, you know, for myself, you know, for my crew, when we would come to New York to shoot, you know, it was always the, you could cut the tension in the air because people would come and sit. I had people stand me up, you know, for interviews because they were like, oh, I got a phone call. And I think, you know, no, it's not going to happen today. I'm too scared. So it was wild. Yeah, yeah.

And I guess when you think of something like that, you think about people's fear then versus how there are so many sort of open secrets versus the time that's passed and him actually being indicted, arrested, and everything. Do you think those people still hold that same fear? Or do you think that any amount of, I guess, power is diminished? Well, I think that the people that participated in a series, I think that there was a sigh of relief for them,

that, you know, there's power in numbers. And I think that it was very eye-opening for them to watch the series, because I told no one who was participating for everyone's right to privacy. And when it came out, I got a lot of messages from participants and other people that were like, that was my story. I thought I was the only one carrying that load or carrying that burden. And so I feel like there was a sense of them being freed from, you know, whatever he had warned them about not sharing,

their silence was killing them. And so by participating in the series, I think that there was a great weight lifted off of a lot of people. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And when you look at this project as something that is out there now, people know what they know.

You've presented your story. You try to present all sides and everything. And like we mentioned, there are some people who are mentioned but not expressly, like part of the conversation and everything. And 50 Cent said that there's more footage than y'all even knew what to do it. So is there gonna be a sequel of episodes

to cover other stories? Or do you think that it kind of rests as it is? I mean, when I finished it, it was definitely like, Mike Drop, we were done. Because it was two years of my life, with the life of my edit team, my producing partners, like all of us coming together. But we have a lot more.

We have so much. so much footage. I mean, these interviews would go like 12 hours sometimes. The amount of archival footage that we have is, I could honestly say it's like endless. So this was just the tip of the iceberg. I think to come out and to do more, you know, I'm kind of waiting to see how things are going to play out and curious to see if some other people might come out on their own. And so we'll see. You know, the story is not over. I think, you know, there's over 100 civil suits that he's still facing. right now. So there's a lot more to play out.

Got you, got you. So it's not a yes, but it's on a note. No, no, I can tell. Now, 50 cents also attached to the project and everything. On scale of 1 to 10, how much does he hate diddy? Like, is it... Like, is it 50? Don't get me. Because I just imagine y'all, in the...

I don't know how involved. it was, but I imagine y'all in the room editing together and him just smiling. He smiles a lot, right? Yeah. Yeah, I do, like, he, no, he doesn't hate, did he? Oh, okay. No, and to be honest, I would do cuts, screen them, you know, for him,

and he was smiling. But, you know, he was actually, he would give me feedback about uncovering things that were actually and talking to people that, that loved Ditty, you know, and he loved the complexity of the story. That's, you know, what made this partnership, I think, really good when we sat and talked for the first time before I started.

He's a very complex, you know, he thinks about things in a very complex way. He understands the power of nuance. And so we never had conversations where he was like, put more of the bad stuff in, you know? He was like, you're doing an incredible job, you and the team of showing this other side of him, you know? It was really important to us to keep the story of hip hop

here as well and to not throw the baby out with bathwater, you know, so they say, to not cancel the whole culture because of the doings of, you know, allegedly one man. I see, I see. That makes sense. And do you think that with what we've learned about Diddy, and you talk about hip-hop and not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but it seems like there's a lot of crossover there. Yeah. And I guess how do you reconcile trying to hold on to the parts of the, you.

of the culture that you think are about that empowerment for disenfranchised people or about artistry, about poetry, but then strip it away from the things that I guess people, most people might know it for, which is the money or the, like, access to women or whatever those things are. It seems like he's the best storyteller in hip-hop because for a little while he was everything that the idea of hip-hop had become. I think that the goal, I think we have a long way to go. And I think that the goal that I had was just to be able to have conversations like this. Because we weren't even really talking about this in the space of hip-hop, you know, before. And, you know, America went through a Me Too movement.

Other industries, you know, went through that. But the hip-hop world, and I think, you know, as black people like to have this conversation amongst ourselves is crucial and very important. And so I'm just happy that people are talking. The conversations need to continue. The legal system needs to get caught up to, you know, to be in a better place. There's a lot more work to do. And so this film is not the answer, but it's just, you know, it's a call to action. Yeah, yeah.

That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. And when you talk about Diddy and his marketing of himself or as this ambassador for hip-hop and everything, you know, that sort of thing doesn't just turn off. You know, like when Diddy gets out, because I'm sure you think about when Dey gets out, I think about when Diddy gets out all the time. I think a lot of people do, yes, I do.

I have also been talking a lot. And so I wonder, though, when he gets out, do you think that he's already planned a strategy, the same way that he had a camera crew following him leading up to his indictment to basically think 10 years ahead for a comeback story that he was probably going to shoot of himself. Do you think that right now he's also figuring out

how he's going to pivot? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that he is the father of reinvention. He has reinvented himself, you know, and through horrible circumstances, you know, for decades, he's able to kind of come out of the ashes and do a meaacopa, press tour,

and on to the next. I don't know if it's going to work this time. But I think that Diddy is definitely, I never call him Diddy, I always call him Sean. I think Sean Combs is someone who views chaos as a ladder. That makes a lot of sense, especially when you watch the documentary and everything. I mean, do you have any guesses at what that shift's going to be?

I've heard, I mean, I've heard so many different theories. There's some people that were like, I think that he's going to manufacture baby oil. And I was like, that is wild. That was one that I heard. And she was like, no, I'm serious. I'm very serious. Like, she, and I was like, you know what?

I could see. I mean, I don't know what he, I don't know what is going on through that man's head right now. But I mean, if I had to guess, if I'm, if I'm throwing it out there, because I've been talking about this with friends, I think he would come out of jail. He would lay low. And then he would sort of resurface as like a pastor. Ooh. Yeah. Oh, that's deep.

I think he would be like, hey, I was bad. I was the worst to the worst, and then God found me in that cell. And now, look at who I am, look at where I am, and then, you know, you see him next to... Well, we see him doing the work. Mega church pastors. Yes. Yeah, with that's that. Yeah, that is very deep.

I mean, maybe I'm wrong. It'll probably be the baby oil thing. But I don't know. He's good at shifting. He's the shape shifter, for sure. Anything is possible with that man. He's got an imagination. Unfortunately.

Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for bringing in a home. John Compton is available to stream on Netflix. Alexandra Stapleton. Thank you so much for coming on. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a cleaning company, things need to be tidy and organized at every step.

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