Kamala Harris for POTUS to Trump’s presidency: US election milestones predicted by The Simpsons

Madame president?

As of today, the United States of America is standing at the very same crossroads that it was at back in 2016. Around 8 years ago Hillary Clinton conceded to Trump, who enjoyed a landslide victory spelling out the commencement of his polarising run as POTUS. After losing to now-President Joe Biden in 2020, Trump has returned with a vengeance to claim a potential second run for office. While the country (and the world) was gearing up for Biden vs Trump 2.0, in a nail-biting plot twist, Joe Biden has declared having withdrawn from the US Presidential race, endorsing his trusted Vice-President, Kamala Harris as the face of the Democrats instead. 

While this is a moment for the history books, the possibility of it had already been predicted by The Simpsons — 24 years ago! Episode 17 from season 11, which aired back in 2000 shows POTUS Lisa Simpson speaking about the budget crisis orchestrated by ‘President Trump’ which she now has to deal with. Lisa is being equated to Harris owing to the fact that the former’s choice of attire, a purple pantsuit with a string of pearls, is eerily similar to the purple Christopher John Rogers and Sergio Hudson blazer dress worn by the latter on inauguration day 2021.

Trump for President

Not too long back, the internet was abuzz with absolute shock over Donald Trump’s assassination attempt. A Pennsylvania rally organised on July 13 turned grim when a bullet grazed Trump’s right ear mid-speech, creating a bloody 2-cm wound. Several breakdowns of the situation since, reveal that the bullet was definitively aimed at his head, but missed him owing to a casual head tilt.

A series of images, presumably from The Simpsons, show the former-president in a coffin leading many to believe that the show managed to predict the assassination attempt on him. Though those images were soon debunked as fake, one cannot still overlook the fact that Trump’s presidential reign was predicted by The Simpsons decades before he ran for president, in a season 11 episode titled ‘Bart to the Future’.

Trump’s indictments

2023 was an absolutely crazy year in US politics, with Trump being taken into custody on account of 2 criminal federal charges and 2 state charges. This is still a developing case. Keeping aside the details for the same, Trump being taken into custody too was predicted by The Simpsons, way back in a 1994 episode from season 5, titled ‘Lisa vs Malibu Stacy’. In the episode, Springfield’s TV anchor, Kent Brockman concludes his report by announcing that the president had been arrested. Needless to say, the internet jumped right in, tying the statement to Trump’s indictments.

Trump’s second run for office

The Simpsons not only predicted Trump’s race for presidency, but also accurately predicted a nonconsecutive second presidential run in 2024. In a blink-and-you-miss shot from a 2015 Simpsons episode, Homer Simpson can be seen flying across a sign that reads ‘Trump 2024’. Mind you, this was 2 years before he was sworn in for the first time, as the 45th President of the United States, in January 2017.

False alarm: Trump vs Biden’s presidential debate

‘Old man yells at old man’ may seem like an ageist and harsh description of the US presidential debate, round 1 of which was held on June 27 in Ohio, but, the internet seems to agree. The debate was characterised by a several instances of both Trump and Biden speaking over and interrupting one another. As per viral images doing the rounds of the internet, a Simpsons episode featured a newspaper with the line, ‘old man yells at old man’ with an image to go with it. Much like the Simpson-coded images of Trump in a coffin, this too appeared quite believable. However, the same soon stood debunked with the original image being revealed to be one man, not two, with the headline, ‘old man yells at cloud’.

Nevertheless, instances like this stand testament to the internet’s frenzy over The Simpsons knack for predicting the future — something that actually can’t be ignored. This also serves as the window to a parallel debate about sieving out fact from fiction, especially when it comes to events of global importance, in the digital era.

Circling back to the US presidential elections, are you team Trump or team Kamala?