When America voted in Donald Trump as their 45th president Tuesday night, Democrats, pollsters and Hillary Clinton supporters around the world were in shock.
No one predicted Trump – a newcomer to politics – would (and could) win the race, not even the experts the candidates and public have come to rely on for insight.
But the signs of a Trump presidency were all there; we just couldn’t see them.
From pop culture to the animal kingdom, the most recent trail of bread crumbs stretches back almost three decades.
Here are some of those predictions that were just too bizarre to ignore.
The Simpsons, 2000
Sixteen years ago, The Simpsons aired an episode titled Bart To The Future which depicted Lisa as America’s president following a Trump administration in a vision Bart was having of his future life.
“As you know we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump,” Lisa tells a small group in the Oval Office. “How bad is it Secretary Van Houten?”
“We’re broke,” Milhouse replies.
Surprised, Lisa asks how that could be to which Milhouse replies, “Remember when the last administration decided to invest in our nation’s children? Big mistake.”
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Back in March, show writer Dan Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter that the episode was “a warning to America.”
“And that just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom,” he said. “It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane.”
He added, “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 eerie prediction happens at the 2:20 mark.
Back to the Future Part 2, 1989
Back to the Future is a beloved 80s movie franchise, but who knew it was a crystal ball into America’s future?
In the second installment of the trilogy, the adventure continues for Marty when Doc urges him to travel to the future (Oct. 21, 2015) to save his children. The movie’s villain, Biff Tannen, then witnesses Marty and Doc’s disappearance in the time machine.
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Later on Biff steals the Almanac and time machine and goes back in time to alter the past, making him a successful businessman in a dystopian future. In this reality, Biff has opened a casino and uses his money to influence U.S. politics.
In a 2015 interview with The Daily Beast, the movie’s writer Bob Gale revealed that Biff was – in fact – based on Trump.
“We thought about it when we made the movie!” Gale says. “You watch Part II again and there’s a scene where Marty confronts Biff in his office and there’s a huge portrait of Biff on the wall behind Biff, and there’s one moment where Biff kind of stands up and he takes exactly the same pose as the portrait? Yeah.”
Wow, even right down to the self portrait. Gale was on point.
Now, where are our hover boards?
Bob Roberts, 1992
Before there was Trump, there was Tim Robbins playing a character a lot like Trump in the 1992 political mockumentary Bob Roberts.
The movie follows Roberts (Robbins), a right-wing New York-based business man and celebrity who becomes “a corrupt politician and runs a crooked election campaign” in his first run for presidency, according to IMDB and Ozy.com.
Roberts has a disdain for “lazy people” and Arabs and a love for political incorrectness.
The movie includes other spot-on similarities like Roberts appearing on a Saturday Night Live-type show (Trump appeared on SNL in November 2015) and a scene where Roberts performs a song at a beauty pageant.
The animal kingdom
Every year, some type of animal is tasked with predicting the next Superbowl champions. This time, several animals from around the world had their 15 minutes when they predicted Trump as Tuesday night’s winner.
The weekend before the election, a Chinese monkey named Geda from the Shiyanhu Ecological Tourism Park in China’s Hunan province made his prediction. He was given cutouts of both Trump and Clinton that were placed side-by-side.
Not only did Geda hug Trump’s cutout, but he planted a big old smooch on him too.
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Then there was Felix, a polar bear at a Russian zoo. Felix was given two pumpkins that each had flags with the candidate’s picture on them. After sniffing both pumpkins, Felix ate the pumpkin with Trump’s photo.
According to KFOR, two lions – a male and female – at a zoo in Abilene, Texas, were given the choice between a blue ball (the colour representing Democrats) and a red ball (the identifying colour of the Republicans). The female lion chose the red ball and the two played around with it.
Then during Tuesday’s actual broadcast, Michelson Found Animals shelter hosted a live stream on Facebook of kittens in a room with two litter boxes: one with Trump’s face attached and the other with Clinton’s.The idea was whichever litter box had the most droppings would be the kitten’s prediction of America’s next president.
According to Local 12 news, they chose Trump.
Maybe we should listen to animals more often.
The Simpsons, 2015
Since The Simpsons were so spot on in 2000, we can only imagine what clues and predictions the show’s writers were dropping when they released a YouTube promo for the show’s 25th season back in 2015.
In the promo, titled Trumptastic Voyage, Homer is paid $50 to pretend to be a Trump supporter. He ends up on an escalator in Trump Tower with Trump and is transported into The Apprentice’s star’s hair where he goes on a journey.
As Homer soars through Trump’s “ginger forest,” a campaign sign that reads “Trump 2016” switches to “Trump 2020,” “Trump 2024,” and “Trump 2028.”
Big Foot, an alien and Amelia Earheart make an appearance, as does a saddened and sunken Lady Liberty.
Take that imagery for whatever it is. It’s just a matter of time until we look back on the clip and say The Simpsons predicted it first.
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