"It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."
The Simpsons predicted a Donald Trump presidency 16 years ago ... but not in a complimentary way.
In the episode "Bart to the Future," which aired on March 19, 2000, Bart has a vision of his future, in which his sister, Lisa, is president. Lisa then reveals that the country is broke thanks the president in charge before her -- Donald Trump.
"As you know, we've inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump," Lisa says to her staff in the now-infamous episode.
Trump, of course, is now officially the 45th president of the United States.
In March, writer Dan Greaney talked about the line, which he said represented "the vision of America going insane."
"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."
"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 further explained. "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."
Gleaney said he's still proud of the episode today.
"The Simpsons has always kind of embraced the over-the-top side of American culture … and [Trump] is just the fulfillment of that," he said.
But The Simpsons isn't the only beloved show who astonishingly recently predicted a future event. Parks and Recreation predicted that the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series in its 2015 season finale, well before the team's historic win earlier this month.
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