AL-UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar (AP) — When President Donald Trump addressed U.S. and Qatari troops at a army base in Qatar on Thursday, he assured the rank and file that “we don’t care if you’re politically correct.”
Anybody needing proof of that would have watched comic Theo Von’s routine just a bit earlier. Sporting a black T-shirt and backward baseball cap, the podcast host regaled the uniformed troops with jokes about medicine, developmental disabilities, homosexuality and their Qatari hosts.
He talked about snorting cocaine off a child’s again however mentioned it was “a mixed baby” so the white powder was seen on the infant’s pores and skin.
Von acted out varied disabilities, together with Down syndrome, and he insulted the U.S. Navy as “gay.” He additionally had a punchline about terrorism assaults, asking, “Where do you think the next 9/11 should happen?”
He joked in regards to the lack of crime in Qatar, the place he mentioned it could be unimaginable to establish a perpetrator as a result of everybody is known as Mohammed and clothes in the identical white robes. They have been like a “Ku Klux Sandsman,” Von mentioned.
He later pointed to the Qatari troops within the viewers and mentioned “they don’t like me.”
The jokes drew laughter and a few groans from the service members on the base, residence to the ahead headquarters of the U.S. army’s Central Command.
There was no acknowledgment from Qatar in regards to the comedy routine and its subjects. U.S. and Qatari service members and a small variety of journalists following Trump heard the set, which was additionally out there to American tv networks.
The rich Gulf nations that Trump has visited have more and more welcomed a burgeoning standup scene at residence and acts from overseas as they promote themselves as world leisure locations, and there are fewer pink traces than one would possibly count on within the socially conservative area. When Russell Peters carried out in Saudi Arabia and Dave Chappelle in Abu Dhabi final yr, each advised various sexually specific jokes and playfully mocked facets of native tradition, just like the heavy reliance on overseas employees.
The one no-go zones look like criticism of Islam or the international locations’ autocratic rulers.
“You can’t talk about the royals, and you can’t talk about religion,” comic Tom Segura mentioned on his podcast final yr, describing restrictions imposed on a comedy tour he made to the United Arab Emirates.
Von linked with Trump throughout final yr’s presidential marketing campaign, internet hosting the Republican candidate for an prolonged dialog that helped him attain younger male voters who have been necessary to his victory.
Trump wasn’t current for Von’s routine on the al-Udeid Air Base, which homes about 8,000 troops. When Trump took the stage in a hangar on the Qatari facet of the set up, he praised Von and talked about how his son Barron inspired him to sit down down with the comic.
“Dad, you’ve got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von,” Trump mentioned. “I said, ‘Who the hell is Theo Von?’”
“We had a good time,” he added.
This isn’t the primary time a warm-up act has stirred controversy for Trump. Comic Tony Hinchcliffe referred to as Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” throughout a Madison Sq. Backyard rally close to the tip of the marketing campaign.
Trump delivered his personal free-wheeling remarks throughout Thursday’s occasion, telling the troops that “I have nothing else to do, so let’s have a little fun.”
He talked about plans for an upcoming army parade in Washington, falsely mentioned that he received three presidential elections, joked about individuals who need him to run for an additional time period and mentioned France could be “speaking German” if it wasn’t for American assist throughout World Conflict II.
Trump talked about his administration’s efforts to skinny the army’s high ranks, saying “we let a lot of four-stars go.”
There’s lengthy been friction between Trump and a few high generals, and he’s been extra emboldened to remake the command construction.
He described individuals who doubted his army instincts as “freaking losers,” speaking up the marketing campaign towards the Islamic State group in his first time period.
Trump ended his speech in his customary means, dancing to his marketing campaign anthem of “YMCA.”
Von’s “This Past Weekend” is the fifth-most-popular podcast within the U.S. amongst weekly podcast listeners age 13 or older, in response to current rankings from Edison Podcast Metrics. The mullet-sporting 45-year-old is without doubt one of the burgeoning voices of the so-called manosphere, a rising on-line neighborhood of hyper-masculine influencers and comedians who rebuff cancel tradition and supply crudeness instead. Von has interviewed folks throughout the political spectrum and in industries from synthetic intelligence to leisure and sports activities.
____ Megerian reported from Washington. AP author Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.
