Resurfaced video shows Pentagon chief defending absurd foreign spending to Jon Stewart

As Elon Musk and Donald Trump continue to their mission to slash government overspending, a resurfaced video clip reveals an unlikely ally in comedian Jon Stewart. 

The president and his ‘First Buddy’ have spent the first weeks of Trump’s second term attempting to get rid of Washington waste via the Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

One of the next targets on Trump’s list is to have Musk look into the spending at the Pentagon and the military. 

‘I’ve instructed him to go check out Education, to check out the Pentagon, which is the military. And sadly you’ll find some things that are pretty bad,’ Trump said during a press conference at the White House on Friday.

Trump fans on social media have made noise over a 2023 interview that Stewart – prior to his return to hosting The Daily Show part-time – conducted in Chicago with Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.

Stewart sounded like a member of Musk’s ‘nerd army,’ asking Hicks – a Joe Biden appointee – about ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ in the system and asking for the Pentagon to pass an audit.

Hicks claimed that those are two different things and Stewart asked her to explain what separates them.

‘The fact that the DoD has not passed an audit is not suggestive of waste, fraud and abuse, that is completely false,’ she argued. 

Stewart, unsatisfied, asked: ‘So what is that suggestive of?’

‘It’s suggestive of that we don’t have accurate inventory that we can pull up of what we have where, that is not the same as saying we can’t do that because waste, fraud and abuse occurred,’ Hicks responded.

The comic then explained that ‘in my world, that’s waste,’ prompting an annoyed Hicks to asked how.

‘If I give you a billion dollars and you can’t tell me what happened to it, that to me, is wasteful. If you can’t tell me where it went, then what am I supposed to think?’

He clarified that this was not a personal attack on Hicks but pointed out that an agency with an $850 billion budget that couldn’t track it was, in fact, wasteful, especially when he pointed out instances of food insecurity on military bases.

Hicks, clearly perturbed at this point, decided to weave: ‘I’m trying to understand where you’re trying to go other than the dollars, which really bother you!’

‘I think it doesn’t really bother me, I think it’s all connected,’ he says, to which Hicks condescendingly asks him to ‘tell me that story.’

Stewart said that he didn’t like that military spending had increased after the end of the War in Afghanistan, while the government struggles ‘to get people more basic services.’

‘We got out of 20 years of war and the Pentagon got a $50 billion raise, that’s shocking to me!’

He finally went in for the kill, saying: ‘I may not understand exactly the ins and out and the incredible magic of an audit but I’m a human being who lives on the earth and can’t figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps.’

‘To me, that’s f***ing corruption,’ he said to considerable applause from the audience.

Stewart then called out Hicks’ attitude towards his questions as ‘institutional thinking’ that ignores ‘the day-to-day reality’ of rank-and-file soldiers.

‘I’m not looking to pick a fight with you but I am surprised that the reaction to these questions is: you don’t know what an audit is, bucko! That’s just weird to me,’ he finished.

The video had some who occupy the opposite side of the political spectrum to the longtime liberal hero impressed.

‘You may not always agree with Jon Stewart but in this clip, he asked the former Deputy Secretary of Defense about how the Pentagon fails audits and all she could do in response was gaslight him and try to redefine terms to dance around corruption,’ wrote one.

‘I may not always agree with Jon Stewart on his ideological views (other than his love of animals!), but you can’t ever say the man is not intelligent. He does have some common sense, as is witnessed right here,’ added another.

One passed on what may be some advice for Musk and Trump: ‘The audit is possible. You just have to throw out the grifters and money laundering operations.’

The Pentagon has failed seven audits in a row, as it has been unable to account for billions in public spending. 

Trump has also endorsed the idea of shutting down the Department of Education.  

The Musk-led effort to root out government waste has stricken fear into government employees and angered Democrats for its draconian cuts to federal funding programs.

Musk’s Department of Government efficiency ordered the USAID relief agency to be shut down by Friday. 

Federal workers were spotted Friday afternoon removing the letters of the agency building where protesters gathered earlier in the week. 

The DOGE social media account celebrated the event, sharing images of the building with the letters removed.

‘Unburdened by what has been,’ the message read, a reference to a favorite saying of former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.