Jon Stewart: 'Rich, crazy monsters' like Trump are supposed to buy GOP candidates -- not be one

Jon Stewart seemed to show sympathy toward Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus on Thursday's Daily Show, pointing out that Priebus' best efforts to make the party more broadly accessible were being derailed by the

"abusive, Cheeto dust-faced elephant in the room" -- Donald Trump.

"This Trump guy is a rich, crazy, egotistical monster," Stewart said. "People like him are supposed to buy the candidates, not be them. In our system of government, one branch has the money, and the other branch does what the branch with the money tells them to do."

Instead, he said, Trump was worrying not just his fellow candidates, but the GOP's most important constituency: the "six Horsemen of the Cashpocalypse."

Two years after Priebus delivered his election post-mortem saying Republicans had to overcome the perception of being a racially-intolerant party beholden to the rich, the host argued, Trump -- "the living embodiment of everything Republicans were trying to exorcise from their party just escalated down on their parade" -- has bounded his way to a commanding lead in early GOP polls.

As a result, Stewart said, Priebus had to confront the fact that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric was appealing to the party's base.

"Get out, Reince," he whispered. "The call is coming from inside the house."

While Trump was thriving, Stewart noted, other candidates were scrambling to make the cut for the first candidate debate, which will be hosted by Fox News and based on unspecified polling results.

"They're going to look at the polls, and Roger Ailes is going to pick whoever he wants," Stewart said, before turning to the camera and adding, "Or at least, that's what he told me in our secret meeting."

Watch Stewart's commentary, as posted online on Thursday, below.