Wilmington, NC, USA - April 14, 2022: Actor turned Activist Jon Stewart gives remarks at a PACT Act rally to support funding veterans who are victims of burn pit related illnesses. (Photo credit: Darwin Brandis / Shutterstock)
Robert Davis is an award-winning journalist and senior editor at RawStory. Before joining the team, he wrote for publications such as Forbes, Business Insider, Capital & Main, and The Colorado Sun, to name a few. He's a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and lives in Denver.
Trump's speech at the dinner has been widely remembered for the ill-fated jabs he threw at CNN's Kaitlan Collins over her looks and over her choice to smile. But several other remarks seemed to send Trump's allies in the crowd into an existential crisis, Stewart noted.
For instance, he pointed to Trump's joke about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Stewart noted that Trump seemed to be setting up a punchline before diverting into a tangent about another topic altogether.
Trump also repeated a claim that he hates Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was one of the impeachment managers during Trump's first trial.
"Traditionally, roasts work because at the heart of it all you only roast the ones you love," Stewart said. "Saying you hate someone in the middle of a joke really takes a lot of the pleasure ... Don Rickles might not have been so popular if he ended his act by saying 'No, seriously. F--- the Japanese.'"
Stewart then played a montage of the crowd reacting to some of Trump's jokes.
"It was a melange of confusion, boredom, shock, and at one point, a literal existential crisis," Stewart said. "Here's the one thing you never want at a comedy show: you never want them rethinking the choices that led them to that night."