Jon Stewart believes that Donald Trump is a happy man, despite his frequent outbursts of anger, because he is “animated by vengeance.”
On Wednesday’s The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart, the veteran TV host and Trump nemesis was asked whether the 80-year-old president is happy. Stewart posits that Trump is, in fact, pleased with himself.
“I think he is animated by vengeance. And so, paradoxically, yes, I think he is happy—that his body is a bile production facility, whereas you and I live aerobically,” Stewart said, addressing his podcast producers. “He lives anaerobically and therefore is happy in his oxygenless world.”
Stewart went on to say that the president has an uncanny ability to “interpret” his life in a way that is convenient to him. Take, for example, this past weekend. The Daily Show host says that the embarrassment of Trump’s Great American State Fair flop—which attracted laughably small crowds—is lost on the president. “He put on the greatest American fair ever,” Stewart said sarcastically. “He’s beloved.”
“I think when you say ‘is he happy?’ is he the center of attention? Yes. Then he’s happy. That’s it,” the TV host said conclusively. Stewart has been pointing out the president’s self-obsession for years now, in 2016 calling Trump “narcissistic” and a “man baby.”
“He is animated only by our eyes and our focus and our attention,” continued Stewart. “He is the original algorithm. He drives us to his embrace, and we all revolve. He is the sun, and we are but the stars. Romeo and Juliet is about him.”
Stewart’s view is not singular by any means. Dr. John Gartner, a clinical psychologist and former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, described the extent of Trump’s narcissism to the Daily Beast in June. “What he’s obsessed with is a function of malignant narcissism. He’s obsessed with things that reflect glory on him,” said Gartner.
