Stephen Colbert tries time travel to stop Donald Trump from his 2016 election campaign
On Wednesday's "The Late Show," he said that he got an idea from watching a rerun of the '90s cult TV show "Quantum Leap."
He notes that at one point in the story of the show, the main character Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) influences a young Donald Trump to get into New York real estate. Colbert even plays the clip. That would project Trump into making millions, which would later be used to fund his successful campaign for the GOP nomination.
"Donald Trump's rise was the fault of Scott Bakula," Colbert says with a sneer. "He should have never revealed the secret that New York real estate is valuable."
That leads Colbert to suggest that he might be able to reverse the tragedy. Using his own time-traveling tool, the host goes back in time to "young Donald Trump," meets up with Bakula, and the two try to change Trump's fate.
Bakula tries a couple times, but Colbert realizes that everything Bakula says only makes Trump's life even greater and the outcome even worse for society.
Having gotten really desperate to steer Trump from the election after Bakula's attempts, Colbert suggests, "It's the middle of the night, no one's around, you probably have a crowbar in the trunk, and the East River is right over there."
"What are you saying Stephen?" a worried Bakula responds.
See how the guys put Trump back on track (and hilariously break character) in the video below: