The United States reached a grim milestone Tuesday as the nation reached 200,000 COVID-19 deaths. The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah put President Donald Trump in the hot seat for his lackluster, if not detrimental, response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Almost no one is doing worse than the United States with a number of COVID-19 cases that has just hit an astonishing 200,000; more than any other country in the world,” he said. “With this president and the right Sharpie we can bring that number down to just two.”
After mocking Trump’s 2019 response to Hurricane Dorian, the late-night host said that while Trump should take most of the blame for America’s poor COVID-19 numbers, he’s not the only one to that should receive criticism.
Reports surfaced Tuesday that the Pentagon redirected funds dedicated to pandemic relief to finance the creation of military weapons. The Cares Act gave the Pentagon funds to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus,” but the government establishment used the money to create military equipment.
Noah criticized the Pentagon’s “messed-up priorities” and joked at how it rerouted the funds.
“Either the Pentagon just doesn’t give a s**t or they heard that corona’s airborne and they took it way too literally,” he quipped. “But in the Pentagon’s defense, we’ve all been there. I mean who hasn’t spent money on stuff that was supposed towards something else.”
In response to the Pentagon news, Noah went on to joke that it just might be cheaper to bribe all opposing countries not go to war in America. He then came full circle to tie the topics of defense and COVID-19 together.
“Coronavirus has killed way more Americans than any terrorist groups. Isis looking at COVID like, ‘Damn I know we said death to America but you guys are extreme.’”
Watch the full Daily Show segment above.