Fox's hit animated show The Simpsons has parodied Donald Trump becoming president on multiple occasions, but they predicted his election many years before. There's no question The Simpsons is best known for its characters, their yellow designs, and the comedy it routinely delivers. These elements are just a few of the reasons the show has continued to be successful after 30 years, but the show has also developed a history of predicting the future.
One of the most notable examples of The Simpsons seeing the future came to fruition when Disney officially bought Fox. In typical Simpsons fashion, they've already used their new home to crack even more jokes, as almost no subject is off-limits. For years, this has included political satire. The Simpsons has joked about a variety of political issues over the years, with Donald Trump becoming a recurring target after he was elected president. The series even parodied the announcement of him winning and repeatedly explored the election cycle.
The parody, though, is not when The Simpsons managed to correctly predict that Trump would one day become the president of the United States. Back in 2000, the seventeenth episode of season 11, titled "Bart to the Future," saw the show explore the future through Bart. He is able to see the future after an encounter with the manager of a casino and witnesses what life is like roughly 30 years from then. Although not the current president, this is when the episode reveals that Donald Trump was previously running the country.
The prediction that Trump would one day become president came sixteen years before he was elected to office. The Simpsons made this prediction in a rather off-hand way though, as Lisa was the current president in the future Bart saw. His future self visited his now successful younger sister at the White House, allowing the series to show how Lisa was doing as POTUS. This is where The Simpsons' prediction comes from, as Lisa is trying to deal with the financial state of the country after Trump's presidency. According to the meeting, his time in office left Lisa with a budget crunch.
Even though The Simpsons didn't pinpoint the exact moment when Trump would become president, it still happened within the parameters of their prediction. The year that "Bart to the Future" is set in is 2030, and unless the election cycle changed within this fictional world, Lisa would've been elected in 2028 as there is no indication she's in the middle of a second term. All The Simpsons needed then was for Trump to be elected by 2024 to make this prediction accurate, but it was proven to be right eight years prior.