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?

Make us preferred on Google

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

Paul Rudd
Valerie Terranova/Getty Images for Cunard

Paul Rudd Was Just Spotted Peering Into The Brooklyn Store That's Feuding With Kelly Clarkson—And The Jokes Are On Point

Celebrities: They're just like us!

They get annoyed when they get bad customer service, like Kelly Clarkson, and they get hella nosey when the drama goes viral on the internet—like, it turns out, Paul Rudd.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot of Lisa Kearns' vandalized mayoral campaign sign
Lisa Kearns/Facebook

Canadian Candidate Goes Viral After Turning Defaced Campaign Signs Into Hilarious Viral Video

After pouring time and effort into a project, seeing all your hard work disrespected can draw justified anger. But a Canadian woman running for political office decided to turn the lemons life—or, more specifically, vandals—handed her into pitch perfect lemonade.

Lisa Kearns is a former city councilor who vacated her Ward 2 seat to run for mayor of Burlington, Ontario, Canada—a city of about 187,000 people on the western shore of Lake Ontario. Kearns discovered several of her campaign signs featuring her photo had been vandalized over the Canadian Thanksgiving (observed the second Monday of October) long weekend.

Keep ReadingShow less
Christina Ricci; Donald Trump
Gilbert Flores/Deadline via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Christina Ricci Just Dropped A Brutal Truth Bomb On A 71-Year-Old MAGA Voter—And Fans Are Applauding

Yellowjackets star Christina Ricci did not mince words after a 71-year-old MAGA voter on Threads vowed to "vote straight Red" in the upcoming midterm elections.

Threads user @janhunterlan, with the midterms just under two weeks away, identified herself as a 71-year-old with an entire family "in California, Texas, Arizona, and Michigan, plus Pensilvania [sic]" that "will be voting straight Red" on November 3.

Keep ReadingShow less
James Talarico; Elon Musk
Sergio Flores/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

James Talarico Just Clapped Back Hard After Elon Musk Said There's 'Something Deeply Wrong' With Him

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico responded after trillionaire Elon Musk claimed "there's something deeply wrong" with him.

Just days ago, news outlets reported that Musk donated $158 million to a Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, in September. The money he donated swelled the coffers of Texas PAC, a group that is backing Paxton, the Texas attorney general. Musk also made a $10 million donation to Lone Star Liberty PAC, another group that has thrown its support behind Paxton.

Keep ReadingShow less
LaMelo Ball #1 of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrates a three-point basket against the Detroit Pistons.
David Berding/Getty Images

NBA Star Sparks Backlash After Saying That Changing His Infant Son's Diapers Is 'Not My Job'

It's 2026, but NBA star LaMelo Ball apparently hasn't gotten the memo that fatherhood has moved beyond the 1950s. The Minnesota Timberwolves point guard is catching heat after declaring that changing his infant son's diapers is "not my job."

The 25-year-old made the eyebrow-raising admission during an Inside the NBA interview with Ernie Johnson Jr. ahead of his October 21 debut with Minnesota.

Keep ReadingShow less