On Monday’s “The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah peered into the past and consulted a prescient observer who seemed to have the best answer for why Trump has escalated tensions with Iran — Donald Trump himself from 2011.
The bit came at the end of a lengthy discussion of the political and military crisis unfolding in the Middle East following a U.S. military drone strike against a convoy in Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Since then, Iran has threatened retaliation, Trump has responded by threatening (among other things) to destroy Iranian cultural treasures (a war crime), and the government of Iraq wants to expel U.S. forces from the country.
“Because of Trump’s extreme decisions, the world is now in a state of panic. Because the truth is, no one knows what’s gonna happen. No one. We could be on the brink of war, World War 3. Or the whole thing could just fizzle out like the beef between Nick Cannon and Eminem,” Noah said.
“The question on everyone’s mind is, why would Donald Trump even bring everybody to this point? Why do something so risky? Why now?” Noah continued. “Nobody knows. If only there was some wise man in 2011 who could have predicted why this would be happening today.”
At this point, he rolled actual footage of Donald Trump from 2011, in which Trump repeatedly claimed that Barack Obama would attack Iran in 2012 in order to secure reelection — something Trump also did several times on Twitter.
“Isn’t it pathetic,” 2011 Trump asks at the end of the video. “He’s right,” Noah responded.
Watch the clip above.