Column: Jon Stewart, the Tribeca Trickster of Real Estate

March 29th, 2024 5:59 AM

On March 25, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart uncorked a typical not-so-funny sermon about how Donald Trump overvaluing real-estate properties was not a “victimless crime.” Trump has been found liable for fraud despite no banker or financier ever claiming Trump victimized them.

Then the New York Post reported talk-show host Tim Pool tweeted that in 2014, Stewart sold his 6,280-square-foot Tribeca duplex to financier Parag Pande for $17.5 million. But according to 2013-2014 assessor records obtained by the Post, the property had an estimated market-value at only $1.882 million. The actual assessor valuation was even lower, at $847,174.

“Records also show that Stewart paid significantly lower property taxes, which were calculated based on that assessor valuation price,” the Post reported, “precisely what he called Trump out for doing in his Monday monologue.” In his original tenure at Comedy Central, Stewart was making an estimated $25-30 million dollars a year for his satirical labor.

Stewart tried to mock people for comparing the two overvaluations and alleged under-taxpaying. His sarcasm was over the top: “OMG!! I've been caught doing something not remotely similar to Trump! I guess all I need to do now is start a fraud college, steal classified docs, bankrupt casinos, pay hush money, grab pussies, discriminate in housing, cheat at golf and foment insurrection and you'll revere me!”

Liberal journalists energetically went to work on Stewart’s behalf, proclaiming it’s all “apples and oranges.” But Stewart clearly felt he could pompously mock Trump and no one would ever notice how he made out like a bandit. Why would Parag Pande pay so much more for a property than its assessed value? (Pande sold it in 2021 at a 26 percent loss.) Is it because he’s a Democrat who’s donated to Joe Biden and Cory Booker?

The liberal elites didn’t care. Jon Stewart is always beyond suspicion. Comedians are their most honored spin soldiers.

Conservative media outlets are making a point. New York Attorney General Letitia James is an elected Democrat, elected on a platform of ruining Trump. She’s not fair or objective. New York Post columnist Miranda Devine reported on James landing on the exact opposite side of a dispute where the American Irish Historical Society dramatically overvalued its building, but James is intervening on their behalf.

What Letitia James and Jon Stewart and the entire Democrat messaging machine are doing is prosecuting Trump for something they wouldn’t do for anyone else. Politics explain why Trump is being prosecuted by elected Democrat Tish James, by elected Democrat Alvin Bragg, by elected Democrat Fani Willis, and by Democrat-appointed prosecutor Jack Smith.

Do you remember the 1990s, when anchormen like Dan Rather couldn’t say the name Kenneth Starr without calling him a “Republican” independent counsel? The networks are now completely incapable of describing the Democrats prosecuting Trump as Democrats. They pretend all of these prosecutions have no political motives whatsoever. That is simply misinformation. 

So remember when Jon Stewart makes fun of oafish millionaires and billionaires, and how they couldn’t possibly know what it’s like to be an average American who can’t exploit their wealth. Stewart never looks in the mirror. Add the dittos for the other Democrat millionaire jesters – John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and so on. 

All the Democrat messaging machine tells us is how Stewart is such an admirable advocate for military veterans and 9-11 first responders. They’re all on the same team, and they are all about doing PR spin for each other. The most atrocious spin is that these outlets are the “fact-based” media in the “mainstream” of America.