Robin Williams Once Called Trump 'Scary' Before First Term Presidency - Fans Say America 'Should've Listened'

Thirteen years before anyone could vote for or against Donald Trump, Robin Williams stood on a stage and sized him up in three words. 'This is a scary man.'

The clip is back. It has been resurfacing in waves since Williams first performed the routine in 2012, but this time the context is different.

On 14 February, a user on X posted the footage with the caption: 'Robin Williams warned the US about Donald Trump and his links to Miss America pageants and underage girls in 2012. Really should have listened.' The post picked up millions of views within hours, according to The Blast.

In the bit, Williams compared Trump to the Wizard of Oz - a man who 'plays Monopoly with real buildings' - and took aim at his ownership of the Miss Universe Organisation, which also ran Miss USA and Miss Teen USA at the time. 'Isn't that a bit like Michael Vick owning a series of pet stores?' he asked, referencing the NFL player's 2007 federal conviction for running a dogfighting ring. He mocked Trump for calling his daughter Ivanka 'hot,' saying 'even people in Arkansas' found the remark disturbing.

At the time, Trump was a real estate developer and host of The Apprentice. He would not announce a presidential campaign for another three years.

What Made the Williams Clip Go Viral Again

The timing is hard to ignore. Days before the video blew up, the US Department of Justice released millions of pages of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Trump appears thousands of times in those records, Axios reported. He has never been accused by authorities of wrongdoing connected to Epstein and has denied any involvement.

Trump and Epstein socialised throughout the 1990s and early 2000s at parties in Palm Beach and New York. In a 2002 interview, Trump called Epstein a 'terrific guy' and noted they both enjoyed the company of beautiful women, per PBS. He later said the two fell out in the mid-2000s after Epstein behaved inappropriately at Mar-a-Lago.

When Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, Trump told reporters he was 'not a fan.' Epstein died in custody that year in what was ruled a suicide.

The Trump Family Has Tried This Before With Williams

The late comedian's material on Trump has a way of coming back around. In August 2020, Eric Trump posted a clip of Williams mocking Joe Biden from a 2009 stand-up special. His daughter Zelda hit back almost immediately, Newsweek reported.

'While we're 'reminiscing' (to further your political agenda), you should look up what he said about your Dad,' she wrote. 'Promise you, it's much more 'savage'.'

Fans responding to this latest wave have called the 2012 routine 'eerily accurate' and 'ahead of its time.' One user on X said Williams 'saw through the nonsense before anyone else.' Another put it more bluntly: 'We should have listened.'

Williams died on 11 August 2014 at 63. His death was initially attributed to depression. An autopsy three months later told a different story - he had been suffering from an advanced, undiagnosed form of Lewy body dementia, a degenerative brain disease his doctors had missed entirely.

His widow, Susan Schneider Williams, later described the condition as 'the terrorist inside my husband's brain.' She has since become one of the leading advocates for Lewy body dementia research.

The White House has not publicly responded to the clip's renewed circulation.