A second Trump administration is demanding more of the president’s allies, Jon Stewart said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” this week. “All must pay tribute to the king,” he said, because “the price of peace is different.”
To illustrate his point, Stewart added, “ABC had to pay $15 million. Bezos had to pay $40 million for a documentary on Melania. Zuckerberg had to pay … What does that remind you of?”
It’s “protection money,” Stewart continued. “So ultimately at the end of this, does Trump burn off f–king country down for insurance money? Like, where are we headed?”
Such payments are “bribery” he said, but also forced apologies out of people who might not have wanted to offer them.
“And in that moment, these people have built careers on their excellence and their integrity had to look and go like, ‘All right, well, I hope I’ve done well enough that I can weather this, but there’s no f–king way that I’m going to apologize for doing my job the way it’s supposed to be done just because this one guy is offended by it.’”
“And ultimately, what an awful precedent that these media companies have set.”
In December 2024 ABC agreed to donate $15 million to a presidential foundation and to pay $1 million of Trump’s legal fees as part of the network’s settlement with the president in his defamation lawsuit.
“ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024,” Stephanopoulos and ABC News said in a statement.
Trump filed his lawsuit against ABC News and Stephanopoulos in March 2024, and is reportedly in negotiations to settle a similar lawsuit against CBS and “60 Minutes.”
Watch the interview with Stewart in the video above.
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