‘The Simpsons’ Writer on Predicting a Trump Presidency During Episode in 2000

The Simpsons, the longest scripted TV show to date has been on air since 1989 and chances are the average person would be able to name all five members of the iconic Simpson family.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, veteran Simpson’s writer Dan Greaney discussed one episode in particular that aired in 2000 titled “Bart to the Future.” During this episode, Bart is shown a vision of his future where as an adult he is basically at rock bottom. Whereas, his sister Lisa becomes the first female president of the United States following a disastrous presidency by Donald Trump AKA the current republican frontrunner for 2016.

In regards to the 16-year-old episode, writer Greaney said “It was a warning to America.” Although it seemed like a casual pitch at the time, it was purposely included in the episode. Greaney discussed how the Trump pitch “just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane.”

There’s one scene during the episode where President Lisa is sitting in the executive office of the White House and she says to her staff “As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump,” basically stating the country has gone broke because of her predecessor Trump.

Greaney still works on The Simpsons as a consulting producer and he doesn’t remember who exactly pitched the idea and this episode aired four years before Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice premiered. In the end, Greaney explains that “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 also said “What we needed was for Lisa to have problems that were beyond her fixing, that everything went as bad as it possibly could, and that’s why we had Trump be president before her.”

Watch the clip below, the line is at 2:21:

The Simpsons is currently on its 27th season and has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

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