Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

This 1950s TV Show Featured a Con Man Named Trump Who Wanted to Build a Wall, and It's Freaking People Out

This 1950s TV Show Featured a Con Man Named Trump Who Wanted to Build a Wall, and It's Freaking People Out
Screenshot: Trackdown/YouTube/ NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

What the what?

Like much of America, you may find yourself occasionally asking if our timeline could get any stranger. Turns out, the answer is yes.


In 1958, an episode of the TV western Trackdown featured a character named Walter Trump, a con-man who promised to build a wall around a town to protect the residents from the impending end of the world.

The episode was posted to YouTube in November 2016 with claims that it predicted our current President Donald Trump.

The fictional Trump claimed that he alone could prevent the town from being destroyed by comets and that the inhabitants should put their faith in him, and only him, to ensure their survival.

Watch the clip below:

And the full episode here:

"I bring you a message, a message few of you will be able to believe, a message of great importance, a message I alone was able read in the fires of the Universe," Trump proclaimed to the locals. "But be not afraid, my friends. I also bring you the means with which to save yourselves."

Trump told "those who want to be alive tomorrow" the world will end at midnight and that "without my knowledge, every one of you will be dead."

After one resident wises up to Trump's grift and complains to the sheriff, who is on Trump's side, Trump threatens to sue those who question his message. THe local judge also refuses to intervene.

Later on, Trump preaches to frightened residents as ominous narration helps set the scene.

Narrator: "The people were ready to believe. Like sheep they ran to the slaughterhouse. And waiting for them was the high priest of fraud."

Trump: "I am the only one. Trust me. I can build a wall around your homes that nothing will penetrate."

Townperson: "What do we do? How can we save ourselves?"

Trump: "You ask how do you build that wall. You ask, and I’m here to tell you."

Trump is eventually arrested as he tries to flee the town in the dead of night.

The foreshadowing of our time is haunting, as the real Trump holds the country hostage over his desire to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to solve a crisis that exists solely in his head.

The similarities to today are obvious. But they get even eerier if we look a few years into the past. As a presidential candidate, Trump vowed to build a wall to protect the people of New Hampshire "who have a tremendous problem with heroin and drugs, you wouldn't even believe it."

Not a far cry from warning people about hellfire from above.

Watch Trump's scorched Earth speech below:

How else can I put this? 2019 is holding 2018's beer, and people are freaking out.

And the parallels go well beyond the namesake and false prophecy.

Walter Trump looks remarkably similar to Fred Trump, the president's father.

Fred Trump was a well-known real estate developer in the 1950s, so the namesake probably not a coincidence.

Though people have theories.

You may be wondering if this is all a hoax.

Thanks to Snopes, we now know this is all too real.

"A representative for MeTV, a Chicago network that airs reruns of Trackdown, confirmed that the episode was real," Snopes reported on Wednesday. "The rep said that the after Hoby tells Walter Trump that he is under arrest, the character gets shot by another character and may have been killed."

More from People/donald-trump

James Charles
@jamescharleslol/TikTok

YouTuber James Charles Sparks Backlash For Berating Former Spirit Airlines Worker Who Sent Him GoFundMe Link After Losing Her Job

The thing about being a rich influencer is that you're only a rich influencer in the first place because the fans who watch your content made you one.

Makeup content creator James Charles seems to have forgotten this simple fact and has turned himself into the internet's latest Marie Antoinette because of it.

Keep ReadingShow less
bedazzled MAGA hat
Timothy Hurst/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Threads User's Epic Rant Ripping MAGA Fans Who Now Claim They 'Always Had Doubts' About Trump Has The Internet Applauding

As prominent MAGA minions, like QAnon conspiracy peddler and former Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, have come out against MAGA Republican President Donald Trump, so too are some lesser known individuals.

Whether it's his Iran War, his continuing saga with the Epstein files, his utter failure to keep any of his campaign promises that they banked on helping them, or the abject incompetence of his hand-picked personnel, some members of MAGA are distancing themselves from the cult.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Ripped For Somehow Making His 'Happy Mother's Day' Post All About Himself Without Any Mention Of Melania

President Donald Trump was criticized after he "honored" mothers on Mother's Day by attacking Democrats in a self-absorbed post on Truth Social, never mentioning his wife, First Lady Melania, who is the mother of his youngest son Barron.

Instead of acknowledging her and mothers around the country, Trump gloated about the economy and accused critics of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome," targeting Democrats and Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve Chair he's been trying to push out of his administration.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Zach Galifianakis; Donald Trump
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Zach Galifianakis Expertly Lays Into Comedians Who Refuse To 'Challenge' Trump When He's A Guest On Their Podcasts

Actor and comedian Zach Galifianakis called out comedians who have had President Donald Trump on their podcasts and didn't "challenge" him, noting that they've effectively abdicated their role by not making jokes at Trump's expense or pushing back against things he says.

Galifianakis made that argument during a recent episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, where host Conan O'Brien remarked that few, if any, people have challenged a sitting president the way Galifianakis did when he interviewed then-President Barack Obama in 2014 on his satirical series Between Two Ferns.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Sean Duffy
Fox News

Sean Duffy Ripped After Encouraging Americans To Take 'Road Trips' As Gas Prices Continue To Soar

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was called out after he encouraged Americans to take "road trips" as gas prices continue to rise as a result of President Donald Trump's war in Iran.

Republicans have faced pressure from constituents nationwide to address the rising cost of living, but Americans are feeling pain at the pump now that the Iran war, which the Trump administration kicked off in late February, has prompted a spike in gas prices.

Keep ReadingShow less