Trevor Noah imagines a dystopian US under 'President' Donald Trump

It’s no surprise that late night American TV shows have delighted in lampooning Donald Trump. After the final debate, where the Republican Presidential candidate refused to answer about whether he’d accept the mandate of the people, Stephen Colbert on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert mocked Trump’s answer with, “Democracy is going to end with a cliffhanger. I guess we’re all going to have to wait until 9 November to see if we still have a democracy — to see if Donald Trump is in the mood for a peaceful transfer of power, or if he’s going to wipe his fat ass with the Constitution.” Colbert set the ball rolling as a veteran television show host and comedian, which then John Oliver picked up on Last Week Tonight, running many segments on the man (“Our main story was about Donald Trump. We can’t believe we’re saying that either”, runs a description for a segment) and passed it on to Trevor Noah, the latest entrant to the late night entertainment segment (along with Samantha Bee, who is killing it with Full Frontal offering theories like Donald Trump can’t read).

But our focus today is on Trevor Noah, the South African comedian and host of The Daily Show, whose latest video imagines a dystopian United States under the Donald Trump regime, four years in. Spoiler alert, it also features a hilarious cameo by John Oliver who is arrested and deported on air. According to the words that flash on the screen featuring surreal post-apocalyptic images (think The Hunger Games or any Margaret Atwood novel perhaps), the clandestine segment takes place on 31 October, 2020, where Trump has been President for four years, which has “been, like, really bad”. The video urges us to picture the worst thing we can think of, before it claims “it’s not that bad” but close, and that importantly, “President Trump is confident he can secure a second term”. After a short message from President “The Donald”, the camera finds a joyous but disheveled Trevor Noah — rather, it’s the other way around. Coming out of hiding, Noah finds the camera and begins broadcasting one more episode, or one last, seeing how the video ends. “I know I’m taking a risk. I’m risking my life and yours by broadcasting this show. But with the election just days away, it’s a risk worth taking, people.” Throughout the video, Noah looks at the various failures of ‘President Trump’: Replacing the Washington monument with the Weiner monument (pun intended), creating a national anthem that features how big his hands are, his own television channel (Trump News Network or TNN) and the most unpleasant scenario of all, white men forced to build the wall between the US and Mexico, as the immigrants have been sent home. We also learn what happened to the other players in the US election: “Crooked” Hillary is serving a 15-year sentence along with former V-P Mike Pence, while the Obamas and Biden moved to Mars with the help of Elon Musk’s rocketship.

Far-fetched? Maybe Noah is just onto something.