AL-UDEID AIR BASE – President Donald Trump assured both U.S. and Qatari troops at a military base in Qatar on Thursday that “we don’t care if you’re politically correct” during his address.
Before the President spoke, comedian Theo Von entertained the troops. Dressed casually in a black T-shirt and a backward baseball cap, the podcast host shared jokes on various sensitive topics including drugs, developmental disabilities, homosexuality, and even their Qatari hosts.
He talked about snorting cocaine off a baby’s back but said it was “a mixed baby” so the white powder was visible on the baby’s skin.
Von’s routine included performances where he mimicked disabilities such as Down syndrome and made a controversial comment, labeling the U.S. Navy as “gay.” He also made a contentious joke about terrorism, asking, “Where do you think the next 9/11 should happen?”
He joked about the lack of crime in Qatar, where he said it would be impossible to identify a perpetrator because everyone is named Mohammed and dresses in the same white robes. They were like a “Ku Klux Sandsman,” Von said.
He later pointed to the Qatari troops in the audience and said “they don’t like me.”
The jokes drew laughter and some groans from the service members at the base, home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command.
There was no acknowledgment from Qatar about the comedy routine and its topics. U.S. and Qatari service members and a small number of journalists following Trump heard the set, which was also available to American television networks.
The wealthy Gulf nations that Trump has visited have increasingly welcomed a burgeoning standup scene at home and acts from abroad as they promote themselves as global entertainment destinations, and there are fewer red lines than one might expect in the socially conservative region. When Russell Peters performed in Saudi Arabia and Dave Chappelle in Abu Dhabi last year, both told a number of sexually explicit jokes and playfully mocked aspects of local culture, like the heavy reliance on foreign workers.
The only no-go zones appear to be criticism of Islam or the countries’ autocratic rulers.
“You can’t talk about the royals, and you can’t talk about religion,” comedian Tom Segura said on his podcast last year, describing restrictions imposed on a comedy tour he made to the United Arab Emirates.
Von connected with Trump during last year’s presidential campaign, hosting the Republican candidate for an extended conversation that helped him reach young male voters who were important to his victory.
Trump wasn’t present for Von’s routine at the al-Udeid Air Base, which houses about 8,000 troops. When Trump took the stage in a hangar on the Qatari side of the installation, he praised Von and talked about how his son Barron encouraged him to sit down with the comedian.
“Dad, you’ve got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Who the hell is Theo Von?’”
“We had a good time,” he added.
This isn’t the first time a warm-up act has stirred controversy for Trump. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a Madison Square Garden rally near the end of the campaign.
Trump delivered his own free-wheeling remarks during Thursday’s event, telling the troops that “I have nothing else to do, so let’s have a little fun.”
He talked about plans for an upcoming military parade in Washington, falsely said that he won three presidential elections, joked about people who want him to run for another term and said France would be “speaking German” if it wasn’t for American help during World War II.
Trump talked about his administration’s efforts to thin the military’s top ranks, saying “we let a lot of four-stars go.”
There’s long been friction between Trump and some top generals, and he’s been more emboldened to remake the command structure.
He described people who doubted his military instincts as “freaking losers,” talking up the campaign against the Islamic State group in his first term.
Trump ended his speech in his customary way, dancing to his campaign anthem of “YMCA.”
Von’s “This Past Weekend” is the fifth-most-popular podcast in the U.S. among weekly podcast listeners age 13 or older, according to recent rankings from Edison Podcast Metrics. The mullet-sporting 45-year-old is one of the burgeoning voices of the so-called manosphere, a rising online community of hyper-masculine influencers and comedians who rebuff cancel culture and offer crudeness in its place. Von has interviewed people across the political spectrum and in industries from artificial intelligence to entertainment and sports.
____ Megerian reported from Washington. AP writer Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.
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