Hacktivists Sent a Love Letter to Jon Stewart by Hacking Donald Trump

With Jon Stewart departing from The Daily Show this week, Canadian hackers associated with the decentralized activist group Telecomix have apparently used Donald Trump's company website to publish a love letter to the satirical news show host.

In a page titled "Your Moment of Zen, Mr. Stewart" published to Trump's corporate website (and archived here), the hacktivists sent a message of adoration for Stewart—an apropos venue, as the Comedy Central host has been spending his final days at the Daily Show news desk having a field day with Trump's frighteningly serious yet too-ridiculous-to-not-be-a-joke presidential run.

"We are writing you today via Mr Trump's website because, seeming, the only way to get anyone to pay attention any more is to grease a Presidential candidate's website," the hackers wrote. "We agree it is a regrettable state of affairs, we blame big Quinoa mostly."

"Mr Stewart, we at @TelecomixCanada would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the many happy years of quality journalism and entertainment you and your team have undertaken at Comedy Central," the message reads. "This represents the first time our promissory has added a message to a device not our own in some years. It is a measure of the respect with which we hold you and the depth of appreciation we have of your time with us."

"Know, Sir, that your steadfast dedication to the irony and power of Truth has inspired a generation which we ourselves now serve. That our collective thanks appears here will, we hope, amuse you as much as it will them."

A spokesperson for Comedy Central did not reply to a request for comment.

You might remember Telecomix as the ersatz IT department responsible for helping activists in Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and Tunisia during the Arab Spring, providing dial-up connections, proxies, and mesh networking to countries where the Internet had been censored or shut off.

Telecomix Canada seems to be loosely affiliated with both Telecomix and the more well-known decentralized hacktivist collective Anonymous, according to a statement from the group tweeted by the popular Anon Twitter account YourAnonNews.

It doesn't seem like the hack was hard to pull off: Trump's website seems to be running an ancient version of CuteEditor, a WYSIWYG rich text editor that lets you publish ugly HTML pages from Microsoft Word documents. The app appears to run on an old and unmaintained section of the Trump corporate website, possibly explaining why the message wasn't more prominently displayed.

The group notes that "Telecomix operatives specifically do not engage in destructive operations," and claims they haven't stolen any information or otherwise damaged Trump's server.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Well that's about it, other than to join you all in celebrating America's first openly Asshole Presidential Candidate," the hackers' letter to Stewart ends. "Godspeed Mr Trump."