The Simpsons voice actor 'would play Donald Trump in a future episode'

The voice actor who plays Mr Burns in The Simpsons has said he would like to play Donald Trump if show creators write the president into a future episode.

Harry Shearer, who has played dozens of characters on the popular cartoon including Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, described Trump as a "gift to satire and comedy".

Asked if he would portray Trump, he said: "Yeah, I'd play him.

"So if they asked me, I'd... you know, I've played most of presidents depicted on The Simpsons, so I think it's got to be mine, it's my little patch."

Asked if the day might come, he said: "I would assume it would, yeah, assuming we're around."

Other presidents to have featured in The Simpsons to date include Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George H W Bush.

Shearer said The Simpsons character who is most like Trump is Mr Burns.

"Well in terms of ego, C Montgomery Burns," he said. "But he (Mr Burns) knows a lot more about how to screw things up than Trump does, I think."

He said Mr Burns is the character he most enjoys playing, adding: "Evil is funny."

Shearer was speaking on a visit to Cambridge University on Friday, where he gave a lecture on political satire at the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College.

He said Trump was an "insufferable narcissist" and would "probably be flattered" if he sees the Trump baby blimp that protesters are planning to fly on his first official visit to the UK next week.

"I think he's pleased by any reflection that he sees of himself in the wider world," he said.

A Donald Trump presidency was referenced in an episode of The Simpsons that aired in the year 2000.

In Bart To The Future, Bart Simpson sees a vision of his life in which his sister Lisa is president and must pick up the pieces after a Trump presidency.

"As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from president Trump," Lisa says to her staff, who inform her the country is "broke".

Many have commented on the episode "predicting the future", but Shearer said it was never intended as such.

"If we were in the prediction business we'd be at the track every day and not at 20th Century Fox," he said.

He said he was "gobsmacked with everybody else" when Trump was elected in 2016.

Asked if he thought at the time of making the episode that Trump could one day become president, he said: "I don't think at that time Donald Trump thought one day he could be elected to the presidency."