DOHA, Qatar — Theo Von was a surprise guest at President Trump’s speech to US troops Thursday, with the commander-in-chief giving a shout-out to the popular podcaster outside the Qatari capital — as well as his son, Barron, who introduced him to the comedian.
“I want to influence you to clap for a man who’s a great influencer. In fact, my son, Barron, said, ‘Dad, you got to do an interview’ with somebody I hadn’t heard of. But my son knew very well,” Trump said to a packed crowd of uniformed military members at Al Udeid Air Base.
“This is before the election. You know, we won in a landslide, in case you hadn’t known, but he said, ‘Dad, you got to do an interview with a guy named Theo Von.’ I said, ‘Who the hell is Theo Von?’ He said, ‘Dad, he’s such a big guy. You got to do an interview.’ So he knew all the names.
“Where is Theo? He’s around here someplace, I think. Theo, thank you very much,” he added.
“We had a good time, right? A good time. We had like 270 million people that listened. So you know what? I think Barron was right. Thank you for being here, Theo.”
It’s unclear if Von — spotted days ago in Miami with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner — visited for a particular reason aside from greeting some of the roughly 13,000 troops on the base.
Von’s “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von” show is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube — with the latter version of Trump’s August interview raking up 16 million views, with additional views on shorter segments.
Trump gave a shout-out to another celebrity who wasn’t present — name-checking “Top Gun” actor Tom Cruise while telling a well-worn story about his 2018 visit to Iraq.
“Air Force One was waiting for us. The pilots — best looking human beings I’ve ever seen, even better looking than Tom Cruise and he’s a friend of mine,” the president said.
“These guys were central casting and they could also fly.”
