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Watch ‘The Simpsons’ predicted Trump presidency 16 years ago
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President-elect Donald Trump, left, arrives to speak at an election night rally, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in New York. From left, Trump, his son Barron, wife Melania, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump. (AP/Evan Vucci)
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ixteen years before Donald Trump got elected as US President, “The Simpsons” predicted his controversial win in a satirical fashion.
The witty episode entitled “Bart To The Future,” broadcast in early 2000, illustrated an “abominable” reign for President Lisa Simpson after she succeeded President Trump. In the parody, Lisa converses with her political advisers inside the Oval Office when Secretary Van Houten declared that her administration was unable to pass a national budget.
“We’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump,” she says, adding, “How bad is it, Secretary Van Houten?”
“We’re broke,” Van Houten exclaimed while grabbing a line graph displaying a downward slope. In the episode, Trump might have left a dim legacy by frittering away a gigantic chunk of the national budget.
(Read also: Celebrities express dismay, hope at Donald Trump's victory)
In a March interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dan Greaney, who penned the popular episode, mentioned that Trump’s presidency was a “warning for America.” “The important thing is that Lisa comes into the presidency when America is on the ropes, and that is the condition left by the Trump presidency,” Greaney told the news site. The second Trump-themed parody was aired in July 2015, which featured the real estate mogul, 70, waving at his “paid” supporters while hitching an escalator ride with Bart Simpson.
Several online users are inkling that Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton would ascend to the presidency after Trump. During her concession speech on Wednesday, Clinton was donned in a striking purple pantsuit similar to what Lisa Simpson wore in the episode.
The longest-airing cartoon series accurately envisioned other happenings in the past, such as Finnish professor Bengt Holmström receiving the Nobel Prize for economic sciences. Also, the show correctly predicted the release of “Star Wars” franchise last year, rock band “Rolling Stones” world tour in 2016, and the creation of Apple Watches.
This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
