The Simpsons episode that predicted President Trump was a 'warning to America'

It's been claimed for some years now that The Simpsons has an uncanny gift of accurately predicting the future, from the creation of the iPod and talking watches to food companies using horsemeat in their products. But back in 2000, the popular animated series aired an episode which saw Donald Trump become President of the United States and today (9 November), that became true.

Entitled Bart To The Future, the Season 11 episode focused on the titular family and depicted how their lives might end up 30 years on from when viewers know them – particularly the Simpson children. While Bart was illustrated as a 40-year-old slacker, the show saw Lisa (voiced by Yeardley Smith) as the nation's newly-elected first "straight, female president" following the disastrous presidency of her predecessor, revealed to have been billionaire businessman, Donald Trump.

In the scene which sets up the situation, Lisa is seen sitting in the Oval Office. "We've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump," she states to her advisers.

But of course, in true Simpsons-style, the events shown only ever intended to be an extreme joke, in order to get a message across to the US. Back in March, writer Dan Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter : "It was a warning to America and that just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."

Similarly, in October, the show's creator Matt Groening told The Guardian : "We predicted that he would be president back in 2000 – but [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."

The show also mocked Trump in an episode which premiered last year, after he announced he was running for president as a Republican Party nominee.

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