The Daily Show poked fun at Donald Trump and Florida’s school system after the former president’s press conference on Thursday.
The Comedy Central show hosted by Jon Stewart mocked the former president for claiming that more people were at his January 6, 2021, speech on the Ellipse just before the Capitol riot than at Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “I Have a Dream” speech at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
“If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people,” Trump said on Thursday while speaking to reporters at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida. “And I’m OK with it because I liked Dr. Martin Luther King.”
King’s iconic speech drew an estimated 250,000 people, according to the National Park Service, while the House’s January 6 committee said Trump’s crowd that day was 53,000.
The Daily Show reposted on X (formerly Twitter) a TMZ article citing Trump’s remark about King and his speech.
“To be fair, ‘Donald Trump’s crowds were bigger’ is the only thing schools in Florida can teach about MLK,” the show captioned the post.
Last year, Florida’s Board of Education released controversial new guidelines on how the slavery of Black people and mass violence against them were to be taught in the K-12 curriculum.
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Earlier in 2023, Florida’s Education Department rejected the Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high school students. Governor Ron DeSantis‘ deputy press secretary at the time said the course was rejected because it lacked “historical accuracy” and “educational value.”
The Daily Show’s post on Trump’s remark drew comments such as “Good one,” which came from @25tmercedes91_Q.
“Maybe he was being literal, each person at his rally I am sure was bigger than each person at MLK’S,” commented @ArchSta62277637.
“What an a**hole thing to be proud about, if it were true,” wrote @artvilmos.
During his Thursday press conference, Trump confirmed that he would debate Vice President Kamala Harris. He said he has agreed to debate Harris three times: September 4 on Fox News, September 10 on ABC and September 25 on NBC.
The former president also spoke about Harris running against him in November’s election, saying that it was “fine with me” that he is now the Democratic candidate. He also called her a “radical-left person” who is “crashing.”
Harris was endorsed by President Joe Biden after he stepped down from the race last month and formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday.