Have you ever wondered why President Trump keeps winning? Comedian Jon Stewart thinks he knows why. Stewart was former host of The Daily Show before his departure from the show in 2015.
Stewart said Trump wins because he uses the news media’s narcissism against them.
Trump frequently refers to news outlets such as CNN as “fake news” or the “enemy of the people,” which prompts journalists to go on the defensive and make themselves the news rather than report the news.
Trump then sits back and laughs at the hapless journalists as they fall on their swords.
“I think that journalists have taken it personally. They are personally wounded and offended by this man. He baits them, and they dive in,” Stewart told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “What he’s done well, I thought, is appeal to their own narcissism, to their own ego. They say, ‘We are noble, we are honorable, how dare you, sir!’ And they take it personally.”
Stewart said Trump changes the conversation from the issues to make it all about his fight with the news media — a fight he will win, Stewart said.
“And now, he’s changed the conversation to not that his policies are silly or not working or any of those other things,” Stewart said. “It’s all about the fight. He’s able to tune out everything else and get people just focused on the fight, and he’s going to win that fight.”
Stewart called on journalists to stop focusing on themselves and think of the communities in the U.S. that are struggling with crime.
“Think of the communities of color, think of Muslims, think of the black community. When journalists rise to this outrage of ‘How dare you say that about us,’ think of the lives that they’ve been leading under this and what they’ve been put under,” he said.
