The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Puts the Squeeze on Venezuela's Oil & Eyes Greenland as Next Target | Stephen J. Dubner
08 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Ronnie T. to The Daily Show. I'm Roy Chang. We got so much to talk about tonight. Trump grabs more oil than Diddy. The new Batman reboot sucks. And did you know Iceland is actually green?
And Greenland is actually under threat from the president of the United States. So let's find out more in our ongoing coverage of the war in Venezuela. Leave the oil to me. It's been five days since America invaded Venezuela, arrested its president, and seized control of the country. And now, the real work begins. Nation building. I'm sorry, I read that wrong. I meant narrative building.
The bottom line is we now have freedom in Venezuela. I have so many Venezuelan friends. They are crying tears of joy. This is their first real opportunity to experience democracy and freedom. Listen, people smell freedom in the air and they can thank Donald J. Trump. That's right, Trump is stinking up the joint with freedom. Can you smell it? It's just crop dusting our hemisphere of democracy.
Breathe it in, people. Finally, the Venezuelan people are in charge of their own destiny. Let's see exactly what kind of freedom they have won. President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela will be giving the U.S. 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to be sold. This oil will be sold at its market price and that money will be controlled by me as president of the United States of America.
Okay, okay, look. Say what you want about his corruption. At least Trump is hands-on with it, okay? Dick Cheney had to funnel it through Halliburton or whatever, but Donald Trump is like, yo, just give me the oil. I'll open a gas pump outside the Oval Office, okay? Just come drive right up, but no Amex.
So, yes, Venezuela has agreed to hand over approximately $2 billion worth of oil to the United States out of the goodness of their hearts and because we are mugging them, which seems harsh, but you know what? A little bit of oil money for President Trump is a small price to pay for illegally kidnapping the president. And now that this payoff is taken care of, America will get out of your hair.
Goodbye forever, Venezuela. You're finally free. The U.S. now imposing a military blockade on its oil exports, using it as leverage to get Venezuela to give in to the Trump administration's demands. The U.S. has conveyed to the interim leader of Venezuela that she must agree to partner exclusively with the U.S.
on oil production and kick out officials from China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba, severing all economic ties with those countries. I think we all know what's going on here. Ladies, when your new boyfriend forces you to cut ties with all of your friends, he's a keeper. Sorry, it kind of feels like Trump wants to be the new dictator of Venezuela, but that can't be right.
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Chapter 2: What is Trump's strategy for taking control of Venezuela's oil?
Right? We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities. Their decisions are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America. Okay, look, I know how that sounds, but just because you dictate doesn't make you a dictator. Okay? Because, no, it doesn't. Because dictators, they live in like a gold palace or something. Oh, all right.
And to any Venezuelans looking for advice on how to get rid of Donald Trump, we have no idea. But I can tell you one thing that doesn't work, satire. Doesn't do shit. but if you're in a country in the area and this sounds like a good deal, well, good news, you're next.
This is the start of a change in Venezuela, then we're gonna fix Cuba, Nicaragua will get fixed, next year we'll get a new president in Colombia. Democracy is coming back to this hemisphere. Okay, first of all, congratulations to this guy on surviving the arc of the covenant. And second, look, okay, the world is a messed up place.
If an oil rampage is what it takes to spread democracy, maybe that's what it takes, okay? Stop being such babies. So which of these tyrannical dictatorships are we going after next? President Trump and his team are also targeting a northern ally of the U.S. with new threats to take over Greenland. That's right, Greenland.
Because the only thing we hate more than a brutal authoritarian regime is whatever the complete opposite of that is. That's just one little hitch with invading Greenland. Denmark, which controls the independent territory, is a close NATO ally. The Danish prime minister has said a U.S. attack on NATO territory would effectively end the alliance, which has never seen one member attack another.
Great, okay, that means they won't expect it. the definition of a sneak attack, okay? The point is we need Greenland. Why? For their freedom, or their oil, or for national defense. Look, I don't remember what excuse we're using. But, okay, this congressman, he'll explain. It's important that we have a stake in Greenland.
When you look at the Western Hemisphere, we are the dominant predator, quite frankly, force in the Western Hemisphere. Yeah, Trump is the dominant predator in the Western hemisphere. At least now that Jeffrey Epstein is dead. For more on America's plans in Venezuela, we go live to Caracas with Michael Kosta. Michael. Michael, Michael, how are Venezuelans reacting to this extortion? Extortion?
Oh, Ronnie. What America is doing here is legitimate international business. Trump is simply offering Venezuela protection from dictators and foreign enemies, and in exchange, they give him money for that protection. Capisce? Okay, Michael, that's the business model of the mafia. You're describing the mafia. The mafia? Oh! Stugatz! This is not the mob.
This is just Venezuela tucking an envelope of cash into Donald Trump's pocket every week because it would be a real shame if they forgot to pay and their economy blew up when it turned on its car. I'll get... Everything you're describing is what the mob does, okay? You're even dressed like you're in the mob. All right, fine. Maybe America is a little bit of a mafia face. So what?
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Chapter 3: How is Trump's approach to foreign policy affecting Greenland?
And then you want to rub it in their faces the whole time. Yes. That is exactly what happened. Yes. Very awesome. No, I love it. Yeah. Dude, we all love underdog showbiz stories of sticking it to meddlesome producers and studios. And I mean, in case for the less educated people here who don't know, this book is divided into kind of almost case studies. Yeah. Right?
Which is also unconventional structure for a book. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we didn't have... So I have a co-author, Steve Levitt, who was on this show, probably in the studio right near here, but not the same one 20 years ago when the book first came out. He was on with Jon Stewart. Oh, I'm sorry you had to come on with me. And yeah, we didn't expect the book. We had a blast writing it.
And Levitt is an economist. I'm a writer. We started to spend some time together. And he did, in economics, what I like to do as a writer, which is find whatever stories, often odd or surprising, and just go deep on them. But the beauty of this is I'm a writer. We look for stories. But Levitt, as an economist, had data.
So we had data on sumo wrestlers and real estate agents and what people name their babies and all these different things. And so what we did is we just told stories like you do in a regular book, but with a lot of data. And we showed our homework. We tried to really explain to the listener why this thing that we say that is true, why you should believe it.
And it's really hard for me to understand why it succeeded the way it did, other than there were a lot of young people like you in college trying to figure out, like, I know when the authority figures tell me the way the world works, they're lying. I know that. And institutions, you know, they kind of tell you one story, but it doesn't work out that way.
So we were just trying to blow the lid off that with data. For sure. Now that you mention it, it did feel very countercultural at the time when, you know, and now 20 years later, you guys are the institutions now. I guess so. You guys are the old guys. Yeah. You know?
But, no, but I mean that when I said it changed the way I look at the world, it did, because it kind of made me think about, it was written, it was very easy to read, first of all. So it was kind of like academics, but made dumber. Yeah, I was, I was the, my partner is an academic, so you know what part I am of that. No, you made it accessible.
And regardless of whatever was the facts involved, it just made me think of a different way to look at the world. You could take two separate situations, and there could be hidden causation between them. That's right. Again, for the uneducated people on social media who are watching this on YouTube on the toilet while taking a shit.
So, for example, if you haven't read the book, there's a story in here about... Can I just say I'm glad that they're taking a shit on the toilet. I mean, that's a win. You gotta... I guess. I mean, I somewhat consider it the bare minimum, but... I guess in 2026, we take that as a win these days. If you're taking a shit on the toilet, congratulations, you made it to the toilet.
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