Minhaj, a correspondent on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show,” is a fierce Trump critic — not a Jimmy Fallon type who sticks to hair and spray-tan jokes (though he has those, too) but a self-described occupant of a “liberal bubble” who has denounced the president as a “racist Cheeto.”

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In one memorable sketch on “The Daily Show,” after Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” Minhaj branded the then-candidate “white ISIS.” ISIS is another name for the Islamic State.

“Donald Trump is an extremist leader who came out of nowhere,” Minhaj said. “He's self-financed, recruits through social media, attracts his followers with a radical ideology to take over the world and is actively trying to promote a war between Islam and the West.”

Minhaj hosted last year's Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner — the one “that nobody cares about,” he cracked — and used the occasion to rip Trump, who at the time was on the verge of becoming the Republican presidential nominee.

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Minhaj also slammed major news outlets for, in his view, not being tough enough on Trump.

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“They don't call him a racist,” Minhaj said. “They say his comments are 'racially tinged.' No, I'm racially tinged. That dude is racist, straight up.”

White House Correspondents' Association President Jeff Mason, who unveiled the selection of Minhaj on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” Tuesday, said the group was “not looking for someone to roast the president in absentia.”

“That’s not fair, and it’s not the message we want to get across,” Mason said. He added that Minhaj is “going to bring the message that we hope to get across that night, and that is that the First Amendment is critical and the work of the White House press corps and journalists around the world is very important.”

Minhaj certainly can deliver a serious message. He concluded his remarks at the radio and TV dinner by appealing to members of Congress to pass gun-control legislation.