“The Simpsons” writer Dan Greaney said that the episode that aired over 15 years ago showing Donald Trump as president was a warning.
Dan Greaney, wrote the episode “Bart to the Future,” which aired in 2000. In the episode, Bart’s sister Lisa, was the first “straight female” commander-in-chief and was having a difficult time after “President Trump” had left office.
“As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump,” Lisa says to her staff, as she tells them the country’s economy is down the drain.
“It was a warning to America,” Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter.
“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,” he added.
It seems like Trump is following the cartoon’s script, at least to the extent that the real estate mogul is currently seeking the GOP nomination.
Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter that he did not remember who pitched the idea of Trump being president.
“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,” he 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.”
The episode recently gained popularity years after it was made, even though it initially received backlash from fans. Greaney said that he has been getting calls regarding Trump’s mention in the episode.
“I am tickled we are getting all this attention, but I don’t think it’s going to trigger this well-awaited re-evaluation of my episode that I was hoping for,” he stated.
“'The Simpsons’ has always kind of embraced the over the top side of American culture … and [Trump] is just the fulfillment of that,” he added.
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