Trevor Noah, host of late-night talk show The Daily Show, would like to inform his audience that he actually “exists beyond” Trump. If his statements of facts “happen to be a thorn in his side, then that’s a byproduct.”
In an interview with Deadline Hollywood’s Matt Grobar, Noah said that he “preferred to build on the information the news provides.” He found that by emphasizing the bizarre in the news, he was able to present a unique entertainment perspective to his audience.
However, he admitted that the aspect of his show that changed him from simply a news show was the fact that he always made clear how he felt about certain situations that were trending in the news. Indeed, Noah has made it crystal clear how he feels about Trump during his show. When FBI director James Comey was fired from his position, Noah’s unique spin on the incident included this statement: “Like a bull, the White House produces a lot of (bleep).” Safe to say, the host does not like Trump.
Noah went on to explain to the interviewer that since he was from South Africa, he really understood the threat of a democracy turning into a dictatorship. He felt that it was his position on his show to make Americans aware of this possibility, and told Grobar that “Donald Trump is the stress test of America’s democracy right now.”
Apparently. The real stress test comes from Trump’s tweets, at least, for Noah. He told the interviewer that having a president who seems unable to control himself is terrifying for him. As he said, “When an administration tells you things are okay. . . Twittter reminds you that everything is not okay.”
For someone that called Trump’s presidency an “apocalypse in a clown car,” Noah is all about overtly reminding people that what happens in the White House is not okay for him. Even though in the interview he stated that he considered himself able to rise above the general hysteria reported on the news, previous episodes on his show display evidence to the contrary.
He also told Grobar that the purpose of his show is to “challenge people’s ideas.” How he is going about doing that is infinitely unclear, unless it is through some covert method that goes over the public’s heads. Coming from the man that called Trump’s win in the 2016 election “the end of the world,” it seems like his approach to news is to copy and paste the general bias held by the mainstream media.
