Lisa Simpson
© 20th Century Fox
Sixteen years before Donald Trump's election as US President, The Simpsons predicted the tycoon would become leader of the free world. The bizarre premise was outlined in an episode, titled 'Bart To The Future', broadcast in early 2000.

Trump was also mocked in another episode of the satirical cartoon, aired last year, after he announced he was running for president.

James L. Brooks, executive producer on "The Simpsons", tweeted this morning: "F*** disillusionment!"

In the 2000 episode predicting the Trump administration, Lisa is pictured sitting in the Oval Office surrounded by advisers. "We've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump," she says. "How bad is it Secretary van Houten?"


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. 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."

Greaney is an American TV writer and has also produced episodes of the US version of The Office. He co-authored a book, Truly One Nation, in 1988 while working as a journalist for USA Today.

This year, he told the New York Daily News: "The Donald Trump that we were writing about was kind of a lovable, over-the-top character and didn't have this darkness. There's nothing in the episode about walls or rounding up Mexicans or Islamophobia. You would expect that he'd build giant monuments to himself, but you wouldn't expect that the first thing would be a wall."

Last month, the creator of the show, 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."

In 2015, another episode, titled 'Trumptastic Voyage', featured Trump coming down an escalator with Homer Simpson while people behind film them. The scene was designed to mock Trump's real-life entrance with his wife Melania to announce his candidacy last year.
Trump on escalator
© Christopher Gregory/Getty Images
However, Trump was later accused of hiring actors for $50 to cheer for him during the escalator ride, The Hollywood Reporter claimed. The Simpsons mocked Trump for this, with many of those cheering him holding "PAID" signs among "VOTE" placards in the episode.

Homer is seen thinking to himself while on the escalator and staring at Trump's infamous hair.

"I'm right behind him," Homer ponders."I'm not supposed to stare at it directly but I can't help it.If I touch it will it heal my baldness?"

Homer then disappears into Trump's hair."It's a gravity-defying comb over," Homer says during his journey through the hair. "I can't believe this was once on his a**..."

Homer then appears on stage as Trump announces his candidacy but is dragged away by Secret Service.