If you’ve seen any of Jordan Klepper’s work on The Daily Show, one question begs to be asked: Why do supporters of President Donald Trump keep talking to him at MAGA rallies and Trump events? By now, you would think they would have seen his past work. But Klepper, who spoke with Newsweek’s Parting Shot podcast in advance of his latest half hour special, The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: Red Flags, says you’d be surprised by the appeal of a camera.
"Well, I think there's two things going on," Klepper tells Newsweek. "One, people have very different algorithms and bubbles. And so I think that there is a world that sees videos and things that I'm a part of a lot in their feeds, and there's another world who has no idea what's going on, they also might think the earth is flat.
Like there are algorithms that put you in very specific lanes. So that's happening across this great country of ours. Also, I think the desire to be on camera and receive attention, oftentimes outweighs any fear or trepidation about taking that step in front of that camera." Despite the comedy that often comes from many of his specials, underneath it all is a truth about Trump supporters that actually says a lot about how Trump operates.
"We are narrative-making machines that work so hard to cultivate this righteous story that we can set ourselves in the middle of," Klepper said. "And Donald Trump, he vomits out so many boogeymans, like he's morally all over the mat and had no idea what MAGA stands for. But this transphobia one is a great example of like, it's cruelty and hate that then loosely they attach to religion, and then the save the children idea is something that was sort of back there that is detritus from the Epstein conversation." In the special, Klepper hits the campaign trail ahead of the midterm election to find out if Trump can keep his coalition together and maintain control of Congress, or does all these red flags (sagging poll numbers, the unpopularity of the war with Iran) spell trouble for the MAGA movement.
"I noticed in this special, like I've seen within progressive folks this last election, that desire to unplug that it's been overwhelming and they taking a step back," Klepper said. "And it was curious even seeing people in the MAGA movement who have also unplugged.” The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: Red Flags will air on The Daily Show Monday, Oct. 26. Afterwards it will be available on The Daily Show's YouTube channel and Paramount+.
Below is a condensed and lightly edited for clarity version of the conversation. For the full discussion, listen or watch the Parting Shot podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get podcasts. What do you think it is about this particular type of person that goes to a political event?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
