Simpsons Writer On How They Predicted Trump’s Presidency 16 Years Ago

Remember that episode of South Park called “ Simpsons Already Did It” in which poor Butters comes up with a series of schemes to take over the world, but realizes that each and every one of his ideas has already been performed on The Simpsons?

Well, this episode couldn’t be more spot-on and 4th-wall-breaking, especially now with Trump actually becoming the President of the US, just as one episode of The Simpsons predicted it back in 2000.

So, how did they do it?

The Vision Of America Going Insane

Sixteen years ago, The Simpsons episode called “Bart to the Future” aired and with it the ominous prediction that Donald Trump would become President of the United States at some point in the future.

Now that this rather prophetic joke has come to life and very much became America’s reality, everybody wants to know how exactly the writers behind this classic cartoon managed to glimpse so precisely into the future.

Was it a mere coincidence or was there something else going on?

Dan Greaney, the brilliant TV writer who has been working with the show’s creator Matt Groening since 1995, had this to say:

“That just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

“It was consistent with the vision of America going insane. What we needed was for Lisa to have problems beyond her fixing, that everything went as bad as it possibly could, and that’s why we had Trump be president before her.”

The episode “Bart to the Future” aired in March 2000 and featured a grown-up Lisa Simpson becoming the President after her predecessor, a fictionalized Donald Trump, had driven the country into the economic abyss.

Watch the summed up episode here:

Writer Dan Greaney says it was a “warning to America.”

Beyond Satire

The show’s creator, Matt Groening, did an interesting interview on this subject with The Guardian last year, when he said the following:

“Back in 2000 Trump was, of course, the most absurd placeholder joke name that we could think of at the time and that’s still true.”

“It’s beyond satire,” added Matt.