Jon Stewart opened The Daily Show by saying Donald Trump “did a solid” when he signed a bill fast-tracking research into psychedelic drug treatment for mental health conditions, especially for veterans with PTSD. Then Stewart used Trump’s own Oval Office pitch for ibogaine to set up a broader attack on the president’s Iran strategy, calling it a pattern built on pressure, threats and early victory laps.
Trump had told aides and reporters that ibogaine users saw an “80% to 90% reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety within one month,” then joked, “Can I have some, please? I’ll take it. I’ll take it, whatever it takes.” He also said, “I don’t have time to be depressed. If you stay busy enough, maybe that works too. That’s what I do.” Stewart answered, “You can’t get depressed if you stay busy. It’s a little thing called ‘outrunning the darkness.’”
The psychedelic exchange was the lighter part of the monologue. Stewart then pivoted to Iran, where he said Trump’s approach amounts to “a cycle of demands, and threats, and premature declarations of victory that allows the negotiator enough wiggle room to, at almost any point, claim that they’ve achieved exactly what they’ve set out to do.” He said that path would end in “a nuclear deal that will probably be worse than the nuclear deal Trump pulled our country out of with Iran,” and could instead lead to “a devastating war that has killed thousands of innocent Iranians, 13 American soldiers, eroded our credibility as the leader of the free world, sabotaged the world economy and will cost the American taxpayers, who knows, maybe trillions.”
Stewart’s warning lands in the middle of a week when Trump has kept the issue in the news. Aboard Air Force One, the president said, “Cuba’s gonna be next!” and Stewart said the country was growing weary of his “malignant narcissism and impulsivity.”
Jimmy Kimmel reached for the same war in his own monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, telling viewers, “Our whole lives, the strait of Hormuz has been so wide open, we didn’t even know it existed.” He added, “We put Trump in charge and in eight weeks, it’s been blocked more times than Melania’s bedroom door,” and said Trump described the conflict as “going along swimmingly.” Kimmel said the strait remained closed on Monday, that Trump was “back to threatening annihilation,” and that gas prices were as high as half the audience in his studio.
The other headline Kimmel folded in was a weekend Atlantic report saying FBI director Kash Patel drank excessively and was unreachable for long periods of time. Patel denied all of the claims. Between Stewart’s broadside and Kimmel’s punch lines, Trump’s comments on psychedelics, Iran and other flashpoints showed how quickly one president’s offhand remark can become the backbone of an entire night’s television — and a political argument that is still moving.
