"US President Donald Trump is having conversations on a platform where he genuinely shouldn’t be. Any leader who is tweeting policy is ridiculous," The Daily Show host Trevor Noah has told Al Jazeera.
Noah spoke to Dareen Abughaida on the news network's flagship interview show, Talk To Al Jazeera, shortly after winning the Debut Author and Outstanding Biography/Autobiography prizes at the NAACP Image Awards.
Abughaida asked the comedian about his recent comment relating to current events in the US to what he has already lived through in his life in South Africa. In response, Noah expressed concern that a culture of segregation and oppression is brewing under Trump. “He is proud to put forth a white nationalist agenda that is becoming more and more something that a lot of Americans are excited about – but more Americans are not, which is the one beacon, the light you have to keep aiming towards.
“It’s actually frightening to see how quickly you can repeat the ills of the past when enough people are afraid and hungry – and those are two things that if you combine them and use them in the right way you can get people to commit the most heinous crimes against each other,” he added.
On the topic of whether the media has contributed to Trump’s rise through the free exposure they have given him, Noah said there was a distinct difference between unchallenged platforms and critiques of current affairs. "It's one thing to have Donald Trump on TV saying something and criticise that, call him out and fact-check him, dispel myths," he said. "It's another thing to put his podium on TV for two hours before he comes out, an empty podium ... what are you doing? You're giving the man free promotion… As a comedy show, your job is to look for the truth, find the laughter and speak truth to power. Donald Trump will always be somebody that The Daily Show is looking at, as long as he is involved in the realm of politics."
He also speaks about being the target of racist tweets. “That’s social media. I feel like if you’re on social media, you’ll be the target of racist tweets. I always tell people, ‘Man, I come from a country where racism meant teargas and dogs and rubber bullets.’ So someone saying something to me online is really the most timid form of racism I have come across in a long time.”