Jon Stewart has officially invited Elon Musk to appear on “The Daily Show” after the billionaire entrepreneur suggested he would agree to an interview under one condition: that it air “unedited.”
Stewart’s on-air invite comes days after the “Daily Show” said on its X account that it would be “delighted” for Musk to appear on the satirical program if it agreed to air the interview unedited.
Last week, Musk blasted Stewart after the “Daily Show” host devoted one of his monologues to DOGE cuts — with Stewart getting so worked up during his remarks that he ended up slicing his hand open.
Monday night, Stewart used his opening monologue to address Musk’s request head-on.
“After a prayerful week with my family — well, a family. It is a family hall pass situation,” Stewart quipped.
“After thinking about his offer, I thought, ‘You know, hey, that’s actually how the in-studio interviews normally air. Unedited.’ So, sure. We’d be delighted,” he said.
Stewart said he wants to “sweeten or unsweeten the pot.”
“The interview can be 15 minutes, an hour, two hours, whatever. I’ll be honest, I don’t think this network makes any other programming. So we can do whatever the f–k we want.”
Stewart’s remarks followed Musk’s recent posts criticizing “The Daily Show” and its host.
In one X post, Musk labeled Stewart a “propagandist,” while in another, he lamented that Stewart “used to be more bipartisan.”
“You give me too little credit,” Stewart responded on Monday.
“Again, the guy who custom-made his own dark MAGA hat that he wears to opine in the Oval Office with the president who he spent $270 million to elect thinks I’m just too partisan. I’m really not sure what he thinks bipartisan means.”
The back-and-forth between Stewart and Musk was prompted by the host’s criticism of the Tesla mogul, who has been on a cost-cutting spree aimed at downsizing the federal government — a mandate given to him as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
Stewart went on to reiterate his willingness to host Musk and have a substantive discussion about the efficiency of government services.
“Elon, if you want to do the show, great. I support, in general, the idea of efficiency and delivering better services to the American public in cheaper and more efficient ways, and if you want to come in and talk about it on the show, great,” Stewart said.
The host then urged Musk to “drop the pretense that you won’t do it because I don’t measure up to the standards of neutral discourse that you demand and display at all times.”
Musk, who has long championed government streamlining, later returned to X with an offer in response to Stewart’s fiery critique of DOGE’s budget cuts.
“I will send him some @DOGE merch to comfort him while he recovers from this injury,” Musk posted, referencing Stewart’s on-air mishap in which he cut his hand while slamming a coffee cup on his desk during a rant.
Despite the injury, Stewart continued his broadcast, later using the moment to emphasize his position on government inefficiency.
“I want to get rid of the alphabet agencies that don’t do enough,” Stewart said.
“Make the Pentagon pass an audit. But we are DOGE-ing in the wrong place if we want to really change the system.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s official store has capitalized on the attention, launching a line of DOGE-themed merchandise, including $55 MAGA baseball caps, $180 pickleball paddles, and $47 membership cards featuring a graphic of the president’s face.
Musk later responded to a post suggesting Stewart’s injury was symbolic of Democratic frustration toward him, replying with a bullseye emoji and later commenting, “Anger management issues.”
As of now, there is no confirmation whether Musk will accept Stewart’s invitation, but given the ongoing online exchanges, the possibility of an unfiltered face-to-face conversation remains open.
