A new Watchmen villain bears several overt similarities to Donald Trump's father, Fred. In the tense conclusion to Watchmen's previous installment, Angela gulped down the "nostalgia" pills that her grandfather, the enigmatic Will Reeves, had deliberately left for her to find. That act of desperation sets up "This Extraordinary Being" as a flashback episode, with Angela personally reliving Will's backstory. Viewers witness Will's hopeful passing out parade as a rookie policeman, but are then shown the constant battle against racial discrimination that causes Will to take on the persona of Hooded Justice.
The primary racist thorn in Will's side is the Cyclops - a gang of Ku Klux Klan members who have penetrated society at various levels to ensure their insidious agenda is carried out. Will's first exposure to the Cyclops comes when he arrests a man for setting fire to a Jewish-owned business. This figure is promptly released by Will's police colleagues, and is revealed to be in league with several officers who are all part of the Cyclops conspiracy. Identified only as "Fred" throughout the episode, Will Reeves eventually metes out his own brand of justice to this local business owner and KKK enthusiast.
At first glance, Fred appears to have no connection to Watchmen's wider plot, and seems to be merely a single-use villain to help explain Will's bitterness and anger, as well as provide the flashback scenes with a despicable antagonist. Strangely, however, it has been pointed out (via Vox) that Fred is suspiciously similar to the real-life Fred Trump. Aside from sharing the same first name, Fred's market enterprise is revealed to be called "F.T. & Sons," adding a few more parallels to the pot in the form of identical initials and sons taking over the family business. While this evidence could still be coincidental, Fred operates out of Queens, New York, and the real Fred Trump also ran a market in Queens during the very same era Watchmen's flashbacks are set within.
Even more convincingly, Fred Trump had alleged KKK connections. Donald's dad was reportedly arrested in 1927 for participating in a KKK rally, as evidenced by a New York Times article from that same year. Since Trump wasn't a known figure at this point, there's no elaboration on the circumstances of the arrest and no charges were seemingly brought forward as a result.
Predictably, there's nothing explicit revealing the Watchmen villain and the President's father to be one and the same, much to the relief of HBO's legal team. With that said, a series of this magnitude and intelligence knows exactly what it's doing when they introduce "Fred T." as a family-run grocery owner in 1930s Queens with links to the Klan.
This semi-subtle calling-out of the Trump family is very much consistent with Watchmen's modus operandi thus far. Damon Lindelof's series has been unashamedly political, particularly in its depiction of far-right supporters and beliefs. Racial prejudice is at the very center of the new Watchmen story and the show pulls no punches in exploring the murkier areas of United States history, shining a light on tragedies such as the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and placing these historic incidents within the context of modern day issues. Donald Trump is never too far away from racial controversy, whether that be his treatment of immigrants, the attempt at travel ban targeting Muslims or referring to white supremacists as "very fine people." It naturally follows that Watchmen would make some attempt to address the contemporary political climate in its own alternate world, and target a figure that has frequently been accused of galvanizing those with racist attitudes not unlike Watchmen's own Seventh Kavalry.
Watchmen continues with "An Almost Religious Awe" December 1st on HBO.