Jon Stewart sounds alarm on Trump’s ‘America First’ shift and the high cost of foreign intervention

The segment centered on Jon Stewart’s satirical response to Trump’s recent rhetoric about Venezuela. Framing the moment as a darkly comic thought experiment, Stewart described an imagined scenario in which U.S. special forces carried out a dramatic ‘grab-and-go’ operation involving Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, using the setup to critique America’s historical approach to foreign intervention on The Daily Show.

Stewart joked that Maduro had been “reverse-ICE’d,” quipping that the Venezuelan president was now “imported to a jail in Brooklyn.” The punchline highlighted Stewart’s greater concern about the normalization of severe military measures disguised as decisive leadership, even though it was obviously satirical.

“It is highly unusual for any sovereign nation to violate another country’s airspace and just snatch its president,” Stewart continued, saying that history indicates that Americans are often first excited by such acts, only to come to regret them decades later.

He then laid out what he described as a familiar pattern. Initial celebration gives way to long-term instability, followed by blowback that future administrations are left to clean up. “Thirty years from now,” Stewart joked, “some embassy will be on fire, and everyone will be shocked.”

To sharpen the contrast, Stewart rolled clips from Trump’s campaign trail, where he repeatedly promised voters that the United States would no longer engage in regime change, nation-building, or endless wars. Those statements were followed by more recent footage of Trump openly discussing Venezuela’s oil reserves and suggesting the U.S. would remain involved until a “proper transition” took place.

**Jon Stewart aims at Trump over ‘America First’ pledge and Venezuela remarks**. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

That shift was more than enough to set Stewart off.

“So it’s oil,” he deadpanned, mocking what he portrayed as an unusually blunt justification for intervention. “Anything else you want to take over while we’re at it?”

Stewart also poked fun at Trump’s foreign policy optics, flashing images of the former president smiling alongside authoritarian leaders and even tossing in a fictional villain for emphasis. The joke landed with a familiar message: moral outrage in U.S. foreign policy often depends on convenience.

Despite Trump’s repeated claims that his movement opposes overseas military involvement, Stewart predicted little backlash from the MAGA base. In his view, ideological opposition to intervention quickly dissolves when it comes from Trump himself.

“They’ll hate intervention right up until the moment they love this one,” Stewart said. “There is nothing more flexible than the bond between Donald Trump and his followers.”

The segment reinforced Stewart’s long-running critique that “America First” rhetoric often collapses when power, resources, or political advantage are on the line.