Sacha Baron Cohen's 'Who Is America' Was Inspired by His Anger at the Trump Administration

Comedy has always been a way for people to provide commentary on the state of political affairs, and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is known best for some of his works about politics.

His show, Who Is America, was his first return to a TV series in more than a decade, featuring his own original characters to talk about the state of the U.S. in its current political climate. He's also known for trolling an alt-right group at a Trump rally.

But when it comes to his personal beliefs, his work doesn't seem to reveal much about how the comedian really feels. While much of his content is rooted in satire, it still begs the question: What are Sacha's personal political views?

Despite being a comedian who has made loads of content based on the current state of political affairs, Sacha keeps much of his personal thoughts about politics to himself, never vocally supporting one candidate over another.

That being said, after creating Who Is America, Sacha's interviews about his inspiration for the show suggest he's not the biggest fan of the current sitting president.

He admitted that while the show was meant to provide comic relief, he created it out of his own anger.

"I was driven to do it because of an anger and upset with what’s going on in America at the moment,” he told Variety. “And I think a lot of people express their rage and upset at the potential dissolution of American institutions in different ways. I do it by putting on a silicone mask for five hours in the morning and going and interviewing various white politicians."

Specifically, he was angry about President Trump's infamous travel ban of 2017, which banned visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. While this executive order saw it's day in the Supreme Court, there was also a vocal public outrage against it.

“I felt very, very upset about that," Sacha told the outlet. "And I thought, okay, ‘It’s time for me to do what I don’t like doing,’ which is why I haven’t done it for a long time, which is to create some characters and go undercover. And it was basically for me to just get this anger out of my system and so I should really credit Donald Trump as the creator of the show."

In June 2020, Sacha managed to infiltrate a right-wing militia event meant to support President Trump and got protestors to sing along with him. Apparently, someone made a last-minute (and very large) donation to the rally with the caveat that someone would be taking the podium in exchange for the donation. 

In his sing-a-long, he got attendees to join him in singing some controversial and racist lyrics, such as singing that mask-wearers should be injected with the "Wuhan flu."

Apparently, security wanted to get him off the stage as soon as possible, but were unable to until he finished his eight-minute piece. The song was meant to be a piece of satire, spouting stereotypical beliefs from conservatives. Many thought his performance was hilarious.