Howard Stern, the shock jock who brought us Fartman, clearly isn’t one to shy away from controversy. His outrageous comments and antics have earned him a devoted fan base.
However, he might have just lost a few.
On Tuesday, Stern alienated what has to be the rather large Venn diagram overlap of Trump supporters and his millions of listeners, when he unleashed this rant on his SiriusXM show:
‘The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most.’
Stern, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election despite his friendly history with Trump, said the president’s supporters essentially got duped into putting him in office.
“I don’t hate Donald,” he continued. “I hate you for voting for him, for not having intelligence. For not being able to see what’s going on with the coronavirus, for not being able to see what the Justice Department is doing. I hate you, I don’t want you here.”
Stern went on to say that Trump would be “disgusted” by the MAGA crew. “Go to Mar-a-Lago, see if there is any people who look like you,” he said. “I’m talking to you in the audience.”
His advice to Trump? Do the right thing.
“I do think it would be extremely patriotic of Donald to say, ‘I’m in over my head and I don’t want to be president anymore,’” he said, while acknowledging that is not likely to happen.
The social-media response was swift, and, as expected, extremely divided as “Howard Stern” climbed to the top of Twitter’s TWTR, -2.37% trending list:
There were those who agreed:
Howard Stern has never been right… until now:
“The people Trump despises most, love him the most.”
If you’re not rich, white, heterosexual, male and Christian, you probably shouldn’t vote for #DonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/rnxSV2qk9s
— Anti-Fascist AWK (@AWKWORDrap) May 13, 2020
I stopped listening to #HowardStern years ago but he's extremely perceptive this time on #Trump – the man detests the people who support him but will use and exploit their devotion. This has been true of despots for millennia of course.
— Rev. Michael Coren (@michaelcoren) May 13, 2020
.@HowardStern projects his snobbery and loss of roots onto @realDonaldTrump.
I’ve met Trump several times. I’ve also been to Mar A Lago.
It’s just normal people, having unpretentious fun. Trump talks to everyone.
Stern is so envious he’s lost touch. https://t.co/bfAy4feuKu
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) May 13, 2020
Stern, who has had the president on his show many times over his storied career in broadcasting, has long held the contention that Trump never wanted to actually win the election.
“I firmly believed that Donald did not want to run for president,” he told CBS late-night TV host Stephen Colbert in an interview last year. I don’t think it was serious. I don’t think he wanted to be the president. I knew him. He had a great life at Mar-a-Lago.”