Jon Stewart Roasts Elon Musk’s ‘Crushing’ Departure from the White House

In a fiery return to The Daily Show, Stewart skewers Musk’s departure from government work and mocks his messy White House exit

Back from the holiday break, Jon Stewart wasted no time in The Daily Show’s latest episode, diving headfirst into the headlines. He dedicated much of his opening segment to Elon Musk’s abrupt departure from his brief stint in the White House and his self-styled “Department of Government Efficiency.”

“Speaking of misanthropic data-hoarders, DOGE has finally rooted out one of America’s least efficient government workers and marked him for dismissal,” Stewart quipped, getting the ball rolling.

No longer a “special government employee,” Stewart said Musk was now “leaving his job to make more family with his time.” With a trademark smirk, he continued, referencing the billionaire’s well-documented fathering of 14 children by four different women: “He f—ed a lot I think, or just has a mail-order sperm farm going, I don’t know.”

Stewart then turned to the contrast between Musk’s exuberant presence on the campaign trail and the defeated look on his face in photos from a recent press conference with President Donald Trump. “He went from tech titan, given a mandate to move fast and crush the deep state, to guy who had a bad night in a Nashville bar he can’t remember, OK? He’s got that look, like, ‘Has anyone seen my shoes?’ He looks beaten down. He’s got that look on his face that I imagine his employees normally have,” Stewart remarked.

Stewart noted that Musk, who had been invited multiple times to The Daily Show, opted instead to give his exit interview on CBS News’ Sunday Morning. “Obviously, we on this program would have been delighted to offer an unedited forum for Elon to discuss his journey from hard-working efficiency expert to drug-addled child star mug shot,” Stewart said, adding with a grin, “But he chose to go in a different direction by sort of speaking to your theater-loving parents’ favorite news program.”

As he continued his monologue, Stewart suggested that Trump had “broken this poor man,” mocking Musk for deflecting questions about White House policy decisions with tangents about “spaceships.”

“But let this be a lesson to Elon and anybody in Trump’s orbit: whatever your passionate political belief or whatever your ideology is, you will go from reaching for mine stars to dissolving in a puddle of your own urine and shame and starting a fight club with your kid just to be able to feel because Trump,” Stewart exclaimed, repeating Trump’s name for emphasis as the audience erupted in laughter and applause.

Stewart concluded the biting segment with a final reflection: “Just rolling with the punches is clearly the only strategy for happiness when you’re working for Trump. Trump’s very open secret has always been: He doesn’t believe in or care about any policy issue at all. He wants attention, he wants his ego stroked, and he wants money — he wants f—wads and f—wads of money.”