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

Omar Jimenez and Nancy Mace from CNN interview
CNN

Nancy Mace Gets Blunt Civics Lesson After Claiming Every Muslim Elected Official Is A 'Trojan Horse'

South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace was called out by CNN anchor Omar Jimenez for her lack of understanding of the First Amendment after she published a series of Islamophobic tweets, including one referring to every Muslim elected official in the country as a "Trojan horse."

Mace's posts came after Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. El-Sayed, a physician who campaigned on expanding healthcare access, strengthening the economy, and ending unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, became the first progressive to win a statewide primary in a state carried by President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. He is set to face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bill Cassidy; Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

GOP Senator Hit With Brutal Reminder After Slamming Trump Over Executive Order To Break Up MMR Vaccine

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was criticized for voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) after he spoke out against President Donald Trump's executive order recommending that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine be broken up into separate shots.

The new policy would recommend giving the MMR vaccine as three individual injections rather than as a combined shot, while also spacing childhood vaccinations across separate doctor visits.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
@atrupar/X

Trump Slammed After Claiming Infants Get Vaccines The 'Size Of A Bottle Of Soda' In Unhinged Rant

In the latest move toward promoting conspiracy theories and anti-vaxxer pseudoscience over legitimate research, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans.

The signing ceremony was attended by members of his administration and other guests, including anti-vax activist and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., White House policy advisor and Project 2025 architect Stephen Miller, and health economist and controversial National Institutes of Health Director and acting Centers for Disease Control Director Jay Bhattacharya, who attended medical school but never practiced medicine.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ryan Reynolds; Janice and Jeff Ivey
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Jeff Ivey

Ryan Reynolds Has Hilarious One-Liner After Texas Couple Moves To Wrexham After Being Inspired By His Reality Show

After watching Welcome to Wrexham on Disney+ and visiting Wales seven times in the past two years, Texas couple Jeff and Janice Ivey decided to make the big move from Texas to Wrexham.

The docuseries stars Ryan Reynolds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney, and the Wrexham soccer team, and it showcased a sense of community that the couple loved. Since Jeff has UK citizenship thanks to Scottish ancestry, the Iveys decided to put it to good use to visit various places in Wales, focusing their time on Wrexham.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brooke Shields on @grier_henchy's TikTok
@grier_henchy/TikTok

Brooke Shields Offers Iconic Clapbacks After Daughter Hops On 'Bully' TikTok Trend To Jokingly Mock Her Gray Hair And Wrinkles

A lot of trends that get popular on TikTok are mean-spirited, in most people's opinion, and now there's a "bully trend" going around in which people say unkind, critical things to a friend or family member and give them a chance to clap back.

When her daughter Grier approached her with the trend, Brooke Shields was ready.

Keep ReadingShow less