‘The Simpsons’ Predicted A Trump Presidency 16 Years Ago

The now infamous “Bart of the Future” episode of The Simpsons aired exactly 16 years ago on March 19, 2000, predicting a Donald Trump presidency.

In the episode, Bart is shown his own future, with himself as a loser and Lisa as the first “straight female” president of the United States faced with a “budget crunch” from her predecessor, President Trump, the likely 2016 GOP presidential nominee.

“It’s a warning to America,” said Dan Greaney to the Hollywood Reporter. “And it just seemed like a logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane.”

The show was pitched years before The Apprentice premiered, yet Greaney, who can’t remember who exactly came up with the idea, said that the line made sense at the time. The idea was, Greaney explained, to present Lisa with problems that she couldn’t fix. Trump seemed like a logical cause.

The episode, which was lauded at the time for the gloomy picture of Bart’s future, but now, Greaney says, they are getting a lot of calls for congratulations over that line.

“The Simpsons has always kind of embraced the over the top side of American culture,” said Greaney, “And [Trump] is just the fulfillment of that.”

The episode has been cited as correctly predicting the 2015 Cubs’ World Series win as well as hoverboard technology.