David Paul Meyer

Emmy winning director of film, TV, and @TheDailyShow.

[Daily Show Dogs @DailyShowDogs]

🚨Riot’s NBA Finals predictions are in! Who do we think he’s going to pick? 🏀

[Oren Cass @oren_cass]

I mostly avoid commenting on what President Trump says from day to day, while pulling no punches in my assessments, whether positive or negative, of his policy. His Iran ultimatums feel different. Making such threats is a policy. If he were to follow through on them, the consequences would be immediate, irreversible, and catastrophic on a world-historical scale.

So while some will inevitably insist he should be “taken seriously rather than literally,” or that he is executing a sophisticated “madman” strategy in a complex game of 5-D chess, or that he needs everyone’s steadfast support to maximize his leverage, now rather than later seems the time to say that the actions that he is proposing would be a disaster for our country, both strategically and morally, which makes the remarks themselves a terrible mistake.

Simply put, what’s the point of all this? If these are empty threats that we all know he will not carry out, then they are ineffective threats (the Iranians are on X too!), merely making the president and our nation look foolish. If they are not empty threats, then the president is asserting the American position that such actions are acceptable in this situation and ones we are willing to take. We are not living in some quantum thought experiment where he simultaneously is and is not serious. We cannot expect the Iranians, but only the Iranians, will believe him.

Whether the threats are empty or not, we should be willing to say: This is wrong. We should not establish a pattern of threatening escalation from a blockaded strait to elimination of a civilization. We should not launch strikes intended to devastate the lives of millions of people and take our nation to total war without indisputable justification, or before the American people have deliberated upon and assented to the path with full understanding of what total war might mean for them. Those principles are vital to our Republic, independent of whether the strategy could “work.”

But it’s also worth emphasizing that the strategy is a dead end. This war is actively weakening American power, increasing the danger to American citizens, and frustrating the president’s important efforts at addressing our many domestic challenges. It has closed a strait that was previously open, strengthened the incentive for other nations to pursue nuclear weapons, and in this most recent rhetoric made more plausible their use. Our choices for continuing the war appear to be catastrophic escalation of the air war or extensive deployment of ground troops, neither of which were planned or had support at the outset.

Stepping back from these threats and admitting such actions do not offer a path to resolving the conflict may be unpalatable, but it is by far the least unpalatable option available. Let us all hope cooler heads prevail.

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Bad Bunny's all-Spanish halftime show was joyful and infectious, or as MAGA calls it, "the single worst halftime show in NFL history"

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

And the best bribe disguised as a documentary goes to... "Melania"!

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

The 2nd amendment fetishists who brought you Kyle Rittenhouse and January 6th think Alex Pretti's legal gun was the problem? Are you f**king kidding?

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 What about this? https://t.co/YgYYqvqJUf

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 The fact that you don’t place any blame on the politicians sending in a poorly trained federal force to terrorize a city and its citizens is so telling.

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 @mike_hamm ICE targets religious institutions because of the people who attend there. Do you support that? https://t.co/dkh4wTTWaf

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Jon Stewart on the disconnect between Trump excusing J6 protesters and MAGA condemning Renee Good

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 Really alarming how much you defend ICE. Truly thought you would be a lot more critical given what we all are witnessing.

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

This is @DesiLydic's nightmare: agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Tonight! Jon Stewart sits down with Zoehan Mendairy ❌ Zoeran Ma'amdanny ❌ Zohran Mamdani ✅

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

Thanks @deseretmagazine and @gitanjalipoonia for the interview!

[Deseret magazine @deseretmagazine]

The Deseret News spoke to @TheDailyShow director @dpmeyer to ask him what it’s like manning a satirical, politically charged show in today’s divided climate. | By @gitanjalipoonia https://t.co/9CvG7AoS3Q

[Deseret magazine @deseretmagazine]

The Deseret News spoke to @TheDailyShow director @dpmeyer to ask him what it’s like manning a satirical, politically charged show in today’s divided climate. | By @gitanjalipoonia https://t.co/9CvG7AoS3Q

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

Matt Berninger (@greengloves77), Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and frontman of The National, performs “Inland Ocean” from his new album “Get Sunk.”

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 But you conflate almost all protests with riots/looters and all immigrants arrested by ICE with hardened, dangerous criminals. You sensationalize media to push a one-sided narrative too. It’s just the flip side of the same coin. You used to be a little more balanced.

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 I assume you’ve now seen the videos showing a guard letting the mayor into the facility. So saying he busted into the facility and tried to disrupt operations is false. There’s also plenty of video of him leaving when asked. So saying that he committed obvious crimes? Also false.

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 Thanks for the discussion.

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 Trying to cast doubt on his character because he lied in a cnn interview—which again, I don’t think he did—in order to color your audience’s pov against him. What really happened is he was targeted and arrested in an incredibly alarming way. Please reconsider your take on this.

[David Paul Meyer @dpmeyer]

@AGHamilton29 It’s also notable that you’ve gone from saying he “committed obvious crimes” in your prior posts on this topic to now just trying to make the case that he lied in a CNN interview. I know why you’re doing that, and again, it’s a bummer you’re choosing to do all this.