The Daily Show: Ears Edition
China Strikes Back at Tariffs by Roasting JD Vance & Selling Out Luxury Retailers | Sen. Tammy Duckworth
Thu, 17 Apr 2025
Ronny Chieng breaks down how JD Vance's comments calling Chinese people "peasants" have escalated both the shade war and the trade war with China, impacting American industries from automakers to Hollywood. Plus, Troy Iwata chimes in on the one thriving business of the trade war: TikTok luxury knockoffs. Michael Kosta checks in with Canadians to see how they feel about Donald Trump's aims to make them America's 51st state, including one ex-pat who immigrated to Canada when Trump first became president and a gun-loving member of Canada's silent MAGA minority. Iraq War veteran and Democratic Senator from Illinois Tammy Duckworth sits down to discuss the work she is doing in Congress to improve care for veterans and how the Trump administration is setting back that progress by taking jobs away from thousands of veterans and making DOGE cuts to life-saving Veterans’ Affairs programs. They also discuss Trump’s broken promises to the veterans who voted for him, how DEI benefits the military, and why confirming someone as unqualified as Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense contradicts the right’s alleged “meritocracy.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What sparked the trade war escalation between the U.S. and China?
Yesterday, the White House press secretary, reading a statement she said President Trump dictated.
China needs to make a deal with us. We don't have to make a deal with them. There's no difference between China and any other country, except they are much larger.
Yeah, that's kind of a big difference, though. It's like saying, why should I be scared to fight the rock? He's just like any other person, except much larger. Yeah, that's the scary part. But I guess Trump's people must be confident that they can push China around because they're not just throwing around tariffs, they're throwing some shade.
Vice President J.D. Vance is caught in a firestorm of his own making, calling the Chinese peasants.
To make it a little bit more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture. That is not a recipe for economic prosperity. Oh, shit!
Yay! He's really calling Chinese people peasants. Nobody likes to be called a peasant. Even legit peasants are like, actually, I consider myself more of a agricultural entrepreneur. But yeah, JD Vance called the Chinese peasants a couple weeks ago, and now that the news finally got to their villages by donkey cart, they are pissed.
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Chapter 2: How did JD Vance's comments affect U.S.-China relations?
Tonight, we are seeing China trading insults with the vice president, J.D. Vance, in the latest knock against President Trump's trade war. That went so hard.
Oh, no. Are we the Drake in this beef? Are we the certified peasants?
At the same time though, saying you're a 5,000 year old civilization doesn't intimidate Americans, because half the people here don't even think the Earth is that old. Also, let's just be real, okay? There's no way Americans are the peasants here. Do peasants have medical debt? Didn't think so. Checkmate, China. But it's not just Chinese officials who are mad.
China has extremely online losers just like our peasants, and they're mad too.
On China's tightly controlled internet, government censors are allowing Vance's interview to go viral, amplifying the outrage, igniting anger, and sarcasm. Look, this is their true face, arrogant and rude as always. We may be peasants, but we have the world's best high-speed rail, the most powerful logistics, and leading AI and drone technologies. Aren't such peasants quite impressive?
One hashtag about the Chinese peasants remark shot to the top of China's Twitter-like platform Weibo.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, is that, is that Michael Kosta? How did the third whitest host of a daily show go viral in China before the Asian one? That's up. That's... That's... That's the same triangle in everything. Wait, is China watching this? Oh, okay, well, uh, hey, thanks for watching this. Um... Hi, Chinese friends. I don't believe what I'm saying right now.
I'm just robbing Paramount. Thank you for using this video. I was just talking tough to China. But words are not China's only weapon in this trade war. They're also using, you know, trade.
China's retaliation now includes suspending exports of rare earth minerals and magnets to the United States. Those materials are essential to a number of American industries, including car makers, aerospace manufacturers, and semiconductor producers.
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Chapter 3: What are China's retaliatory trade measures against the U.S.?
Do you like this bag or this? Yeah, good news, honey.
I am getting you that Gucci bag for your birthday. But forget about the designer products because these TikToks aren't just offering cheap Chanel bags. They're offering cheap everything. Do you want to buy laundry pots?
Do you want laundry capsule? Do you want laundry beads? One cost costs only five cents. Just ship custom-scented candles to U.S.
for only two dollars. Do you need a house? We can build it for you in just 48 hours. Place an order, and we will deliver it to a country.
Good news, honey. I am getting you that prefabricated house for Memorial Day. For more on the trade war, we go live to the White House with Troy Iwata.
Okay, uh, Troy, that's a lot of designer clothing. Mm-hmm. And I got it all for $8. Thank you, trade war.
Okay, Troy, please don't thank the trade war, all right? If tensions keep building, it could be economically devastating.
Okay, I know, but the longer this trade war goes, the more incredible deals I'm finding on TikTok. So personally, I think tensions could get like five to 10% higher. Even a dumb peasant country like China could understand that. Okay, Troy. No, Troy, that's exactly the kind of talk that could escalate the trade war. Okay, and I'm fine with that. Look, look, this is like 400 Tide Pods.
And it was 15 cents. I had to break a dollar. I have a lot of luxury clothes to wash, and these are extra nice, so I'm going to wash them on extra hot with my towels. No, no. This could cause a global recession. All right, then we'll buy our way out of it. For the first time in our lives, we can get Hermes scarves in bulk, like all those dumb people in China.
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Chapter 4: How are TikTok luxury knockoffs influencing the trade war?
For decades, Canadians have been wasting away in a country known best to the world as America's hat. But that's all about to change.
Canada was meant to be the 51st state.
It's just an artificial line that was drawn in the sand or in the ice.
But not everyone's so sure about that. Meet Stephen Shainbart, American political refugee.
The night that Trump was elected in 2016, I started looking into becoming a Canadian citizen and I moved here in 2020 full time. I gave up my apartment in Brooklyn, moved to Toronto.
A lot of people said they were going to move to Canada when Trump won.
And it's bullshit. You actually did it. So I wrote, I actually did it, becoming Canadian because of Trump. Is that the book where you admit that you killed OJ's wife? No, it's not the, no. It's not? I didn't.
Hmm, exactly what OJ said. And just like a white Bronco chase cut short, Stevens worried his escape from America might have been a futile gesture. Just look at history.
Austria was the first country that Hitler took over when he was expanding. And it was very similar to Germany, the way Canada is similar to the US. And they just kind of absorbed it. And that was the beginning of Hitler's expansion.
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Chapter 5: What is the Canadian perspective on becoming the 51st U.S. state?
Polls show 90% of Canadians do not want to be part of the United States.
But what about the other 10%? The silent majority. The most elite and intellectual Canadians take a different view. I'm just trying to make Canada great, so let's make it the 51st state.
Finally, a normal person. You gotta make a stand. If you believe in what you believe, and I believe in I wanna become an American, I'm gonna do it.
I mean, just think about the possibilities. You could be sentenced to the death penalty. You could drive over a bridge not knowing if it's gonna collapse. Cheese coming out of a spray can.
I've never tried spray can cheese, right? But I'm looking forward to it.
And after living under Canada's jackboot, Josh is eager to speak his mind.
First Amendment, right?
Freedom of speech? Freedom of speech? And the thing about the First Amendment is that that thing is ironclad.
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Chapter 6: Who are the Canadians supporting or opposing U.S. annexation, and why?
Yeah.
I mean, unless you're a protester or a legal firm or a member of the media or a Democrat or a green card holder. But other than that, huh? That's good. And in case you couldn't tell by the way he looks, there's another amendment that Josh is way more excited about. So Canada doesn't have a second amendment?
We do have certain guns, but not the ones that we do in America, the AR-15. Right. We can't have any guns that have over, I think it's five rounds.
Five rounds. That means that you can't even have a mass shooting. Well, you know, you can't even mass shoot at a deer, right? That's why American hunters are so good, because they can pop off 200 rounds in five seconds. You're gonna hit something. This Quebecanon shaman was almost passing for an American, but there was just something that was off about him. Look at that. Get it! Get it! Let's go!
Like the Canadian dollar, it's close, but just not quite there. What is this, Monopoly money? In fact, there was something off about this whole country.
The differences are subtle, but really significant. Like when I go get pizza, they ask me, you know, what kind of sauce I want on the pizza, if I want like sweet and sour sauce or Chipotle sauce.
Wait, wait, wait, what the did you just say?
They give it to you and they say, what kind of sauce do you want on it? And I said, what do you mean? I'm from New York, we don't do that.
These bastards, sweet and sour sauce on pizza? Not even Little Caesars would do a thing like that. Anyone know what they put on pizza in Greenland?
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Chapter 7: What cultural differences exist between the U.S. and Canada?
I did. I was pissed off that we were not taking care of our veterans, so I decided to run.
Yeah. And, um... And, um, so... How are we treating our veterans?
Well, we were doing really well until Trump decided to fire 6,000 of them from their federal jobs in the last three months.
Yeah, and why do you do that?
Well, you know, I guess this is a guy who hugs the flag, says he loves America, but then fires 6,000 veterans. I don't think he cares about us.
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Chapter 8: What veteran issues does Senator Tammy Duckworth discuss regarding the Trump administration?
Yeah, so what, like, what was the, what was the, would he give any reason for firing?
There was no reason. It's part of their cuts across federal government. Veterans, after they serve in the military, tend to want to serve the country, continue to. As civil servants. As civil servants. So 30% of the federal workforce are veterans. And so this president has fired more veterans than any other veterans, than any other president in modern history.
Okay.
6,000 and counting.
And how is that, how is that, okay, we get it. All right. They don't like it. And that's specifically, was it Doge or was it something else?
It was Doge's across-the-board cuts. When you fire this many federal employees, you're going to lose that many veterans. But Doge has also come out, and they've announced they want to cut 80,000 personnel just from the Department of Veterans Affairs. That's their next target.
But, okay, and that... I don't know. Are these people they can lose, or is it going to run fine? Is it running fine now? What's the situation in the Veterans Affairs?
It was getting better. We passed the PACT Act, which was bipartisan, which basically... signed up a million more veterans who were exposed to cancer-causing toxic smoke from burn pits. They're finally getting the care that they need. And now we have those folks on board, and now they're gonna fire all the people who take care of those folks.
OK. And so I'm pissed. OK. Can anyone stop this?
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