Olivia Munn mocks Trump's ‘destructive' tariff strategy in surprise Daily Show return

Independent

10-04-2025

Olivia Munn made a surprise return to The Daily Show on Wednesday to roast Donald Trump 's abrupt reversal of his threatening global tariffs.
The 44-year-old Predator star, who appeared as a correspondent on Comedy Central 's satirical news program from 2010 to 2011, helped the show's Desi Lydic make sense of the president's 'tariff mania.'
'So break it down for us. What is Trump's strategy here with these tariffs?' Lydic asked. 'Everyone's scared. There's so much uncertainty, and this is no way that you can actually run an economy.'
Munn stepped in to tell Lydic to 'be cool,' reassuring her that 'Trump knows exactly what he's doing. He put tariffs that destroyed the global economy, so then he took them off, and now it's only mostly destroyed. Now, to avoid tariffs coming back, other countries will cut deals with us for better trade terms and our deficit drops to zero — problem solved.'
'Ok, I see,' Lydic replied hesitantly. 'And that's when we drop all the tariffs?'
'No b****,' Munn responded. 'Then we hit them even harder: 400 percent tariffs. We bomb their factories. We catch those penguins on that island, and we eat them. Then the other countries will really come begging.'
'We can get whatever we want, baby!' she continued. 'Ikea furniture? Comes assembled. Honda Accords — trunks full of Nike sneakers. We'll get to pee on their currency while they watch. Then we've won!'
'Gross,' Lydic said. 'But fine. Then the trade war ends?'
'Yes, then it makes sense for the trade war to end,' Munn acknowledged. 'But sike, b**** — 4 billion percent tariffs. You're in our house now. The new iPhone? $3. Nike sneakers comes with a Honda Accord. Then we pee on their currency again. They're not even watching. It's just the only way we can pee anymore.'
'Olivia, why?' Lydic questioned. 'How does any of this make up the trade deficit?'
'Desi, baby girl, it's not the trade deficit,' Munn said.
'This is all to make up for Donald Trump's enormous deficit of attention and love. He said as much last night,' she added before playing a clip from
'I'm telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal,' the president told the roomful of GOP donors.
'See?' Munn said. 'He's just a boy standing in front of the world asking to get his ass kissed. And once the world fills the aching hole in his heart, the tariffs will end.'
'But that will never happen,' Lydic argued. 'There's not enough attention in the world to make him feel like a human again.'
'Exactly b****,' Munn replied.
On Wednesday, just hours after Trump's sweeping tariffs took effect on more than 75 nations, he performed an extraordinary U-turn. He announced he was pausing and reducing tariffs on most nations for 90 days while increasing levies on imports from China to 125 percent.