Jon Stewart says media coverage of Donald Trump's campaign is like 'incessant masturbation'

While the media is eating up everything Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said or done since launching his campaign, late night TV host Jon Stewart has come to question all of the coverage focused on the real estate mogul.

In a nine-minute segment on the Iran nuclear arms deal on 22 July, Stewart said Trump's campaign has captured the public's inability to turn away from the "spectacular man-man disasters". At what price, Stewart asked, will America continue to pay attention to Trump's campaign?

"Much like incessant masturbation, eventually you feel a deep sense of shame," he continued. "Not enough to stop you from doing it entirely, but enough to slow you down a bit."

Stewart added, "My point is this, our incessant Trump-gazing has caused us to miss important non-Trump news."

The outgoing Daily Show host went on to call out another GOP presidential candidate, Senator Lindsey Graham, for calling the Iran nuclear arms deal "historically bad" before even reading the deal itself.

Eventually, the segment returns right back to Trump, who was critical of the deal between Iran and the US and how it was handled by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Running as a third party candidate?

Despite receiving plenty of attention from the media, Trump has not received quite the treatment he was expecting from his own party. The 69-year-old told The Hill that the Republican National Committee's treatment has led him to consider running as a third party candidate.

"The RNC has not been supportive," Trump said. "They were always supportive when I was a contributor. I was their fair-haired boy. The RNC has been, I think, very foolish."

The GOP candidate said many want him to run as a third party candidate if he does not win the Republican nomination. "I'll have to see how I'm being treated by the Republicans," he said. "Absolutely, if they're not fair, that would be a factor."

Trump has enjoyed rising poll numbers within the Republican party despite increasing criticism from his fellow GOP candidates.