Ronny Chieng, host of "The Daily Show," compared becoming a U.S. citizen to joining an "evil empire" during an appearance on Variety's "Awards Circuit" podcast on Friday.Chieng, who was born in Malaysia and moved to the U.S. as a child before returning to Malaysia at age seven, described his eventual return to America in 2015 as "30 years in the making."He said he came back to the U.S. to pursue his career in stand-up comedy and that it was a "weird time" to become an American.CRAZY RICH ASIANS ACTOR SAYS HED LIKE TO HAVE CONSERVATIVES IN AMERICA WHO ARENT F------ MORONS"I turn down offers to tour overseas all the time," Chieng said. "Ive got no interest in it, because I came from there. Ive been trying to come here so it makes sense for me to get citizenship, because if I do leave the country, I know I can come back in to the stuff that Ive been building here."Chieng told Variety that the type of things that attracted him to America were "Back to the Future" and "Seinfeld" and not "the Iraq War.""Its like youre joining this evil empire, but thats not why you joined it. It just so happened, the evil empire had some really nice TV shows, and they do stand-up comedy in The Death Star," he said.CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTUREBeginning his tenure on the "Daily Show" in 2015, Chieng noted that "this Trump thing" is all he's known, saying that since he came to America, President Donald Trump's "shadow has been looming or in charge.""Hes [Trump's] been talking s--- for a long time now. Were used to him talking s---," he explained. "Hes been throwing chaos in the mix for a long time now. So in that sense, it doesnt feel like anything new in terms of coverage."Chieng also compared covering Trump's second term on the "Daily Show" to "being in an emergency room," describing the non-stop coverage of the president as "outlandish.""You kind of get numb to it, because its always a car wreck every day. Its something new coming in, and its something you have to comment on," Chieng said. "It seems outlandish, but at the same time, its been outlandish for nine years. So is it outlandish? Thats the feeling."