Russell Brand: Bill O'Reilly defends Trump as if he was an elderly woman fighting her landlord

Bill O'Reilly came perilously close to self-awareness in his defense of Donald Trump, comedian Russell Brand said on his latest commentary for The Trews, saying the Factor host was "tantalizingly close" to becoming Howard Beale, the newsman at the center of the seminal satire Network.

"You think for a moment, 'Oh my God, Bill's on the precipice of telling the absolute truth, of saying, I'm part of the problem, I work for Fox News day after days, I've been representing corporate interests, I've been sticking up for Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump, unseen figures whose name you'll never know because they're so ensconced in power, their power continually veiled, but I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore,'" Brand argued, adding that O'Reilly settles for telling critics, "Be nicer to Donald Trump."

Brand showed footage of the Factor host arguing that the press was trying to undermine Trump because he showed "no fear," a notion Brand dismissed.

"I once interviewed Donald Trump," Brand recalled. "It took him an hour to prepare that bizarre thing that he wears on his head. No fear, you just go, 'I'm ready to be interviewed, Brand,' rather than construct an elaborate breakfast cereal domed up on the top of your bonce."

In sticking up for the former reality star and GOP frontrunner, Brand said, O'Reilly took on the sort of indignant tone other people use to defend "hat poor little old lady is being continually wronged by her landlord. But he's protecting Donald Trump -- a billionaire who's a billionaire on the basis that he inherited a load of money and sort of fallen through life on a series of beautiful, convenient tax breaks."

In hyping Trump as an individualist, Brand said, O'Reilly was harkening back to the 1980s, and a philosophy that didn't work.

"It ruined everything. It destroyed the planet," the comedian said. "And Bill O'Reilly and Trump are sort of trying to keep the '80s alive. This is 2015. That's the old days now; it's nearly half a century now. We can't carry on like this."

Watch Brand's take on the Trump/O'Reilly relationship, as posted online on Wednesday, below.