On Tuesday night, famed radio personality Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show received some media print treatment when the New York Daily News reported on comments the host made about Trump and his MAGA voting base earlier that day. Addressing his audience directly, Stern went in on Trump supporters who have delusions that their corrupt greedy president would want to have anything to do with them.
Stern had Donald Trump on the various iterations of his show going back decades. Stern’s show was one of the places the mostly New York, tri-state area-based real estate failure could go and get publicity back in the days. Since becoming president, Stern has been openly critical of Trump, pointing out to conservatives who voted for him that Trump has always been openly racist and misogynistic and petty. But on Tuesday, Stern took his frustration with Trump supporters to the next level.
Stern slammed those in his audience that would vote for Trump. “The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most. The people who are voting for Trump for the most part ... he wouldn’t even let them in a f---ing hotel. He’d be disgusted by them. Go to Mar-a-Lago, see if there’s any people who look like you. I’m talking to you in the audience.” If it sounded like Stern was manifesting contempt for people who voted for Trump … he was. “I don’t hate Donald. I hate you for voting for him, for not having intelligence.”
This came after Stern announced his show would be free to anybody, even those not subscribed to SiriusXM. Stern joked that Trump should hold a rally with all of his supporters where they could “hug each other and kiss each other,” and drink bleach together. When the Daily News story hit, Twitter saw Stern’s name trending as people lauded him, while others, obvious MAGA hat wearers condemned Stern.
And some people wanted to make sure the whole story about this administration got out, like co-creator of Chapelle Show, Neal Brennan, who tweeted this.
Stern has a long history of being a mercenary, self-involved, misogynistic prick himself. And Stern’s condemnation of Trump supporters didn’t extend to Trump himself, saying he would have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago if Trump just stood up and said he was going to quit because he was in over his head. But the 66-year-old former “shock jock” has definitely shown an evolution of character over the past couple of decades. Is he the singular representative of liberal ideals? No. But Donald Trump and many of his supporters seem to be be stuck in a mythic time from the 1970s, when men were men and women were women and parents were supposed to be mostly drunk, absent, and shitty.
