Throwback: The Daily Show asks how holy is Donald Trump?

Revisit the Daily Show’s 2016 piece investigating Donald Trump’s holiness

The 2020 Republican National Convention recently wrapped up, giving the country a chance to reflect on the past four years of Donald Trump’s presidency. For The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, this meant revisiting a 2016 piece examining the then-Republican nominee’s support from conservative Christians.

The 2016 presidential election was surprising in more ones than one. Few could have predicted that Donald Trump could go from The Apprentice and the birther movement to the Republican nomination and eventually the White House.

Helping him get there were evangelicals. Of those that voted, 80 percent chose Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States. This came despite legitimate questions about Trump’s faith, morality, personal life, and more.

During the 2016 Republican National Convention, The Daily Show sent correspondent Jordan Klepper to investigate the foundation of this support. In trying to answer how holy is Donald Trump, Klepper only ended up with more questions.

There is no such thing as the perfect candidate. Yet for the people that Klepper interviewed in 2016, you couldn’t ask for a better candidate than Donald Trump. Despite demonstrating no traditional Christian values or any familiarity with Christian teachings, the real estate mogul won over the support of conservative Christians.

In typical Daily Show fashion, Klepper points out hypocrisy after hypocrisy, contradiction after contradiction. There was a time where this would embarrassing or enough to dismiss a movement out of hand. But as we learned from the 2016 election, facts don’t necessarily matter and people will believe what they want to believe. And the same standards applied to one candidate don’t have to be used for the other.

The Daily Show was denied the chance to return to this year’s conventions

One of the biggest drawbacks of having virtual conventions this year was the lack of coverage from late-night shows. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah did excellent work recapping each night but it wasn’t quite the same as having a correspondent at the event.

This 2016 clip proves that there are few events on the calendar each year that provide the opportunities for comedy like the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. So instead of footage from 2020, late-night fans have to rely on throwback clips. If anything, it’s a reminder of how entertaining the shows can be when things are normal and all resources are available.

What is your favorite clip from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah‘s coverage of the 2016 conventions? Let us know in the comment section below.