Barron Trump Time Traveling Conspiracy Theory

About

Barron Trump Time Traveling Conspiracy Theory refers to a series of coincidences between the literary works of Ingersoll Lockwood and modern politics, particularly involving the Lockwood character "Baron Trump" and United States President Donald Trump's youngest son Baron Trump.

Origin

The earliest mention of the conspiracy theory was published by an anonymous 4chan user on July 13th, 2017. This post includes the following pieces of information about author Ingersoll Lockwood, who died in 1819.^[1][2]

He wrote the following books: a) 1890's The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and his Wonderful Dog Bulgar
b) 1893's Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey
c) 1896's 1900: Or, the Last President

Additionally, the stories include the coincidences that Trump's mentor is a man named "Don," "the master of all masters," who guides him through Russia.

Precursor

Donald Trump's Time Machine

On November 9th, 2016, an anonymous 4chan user posted a conspiracy theory that posits the idea that Trump inherited inventor and scienist Nikola Tesla's time machine from his uncle John Trump. While working at the government's Office of Scientific Research and Development, renowned physicist and MIT professor John Trump were examined Tesla's papers after the scientist's death, which included blueprints for a time machine.^[3]

Spread

On July 15th, 2017, Twitter ^[4] user @InDistans tweeted an image of the title page for the book and added the caption, "So the internet is going crazy about this book with Baron Trump in the title from 1893, with it's sequel 'The Last President.'" However, The Last President is not a sequel to the Baron Trump stories--it is a separate piece of satire by Lockwood. The tweet received more than 40 retweets and 40 likes (shown below, left).

Two days later, filmmaker Leigh Scott posted a video plea for an IndieGogo^[5] campaign that will fund a film adaptation of the Baron Trump stories. Within a year and a half, the post received more than 66,000 views (trailer below, right). Within one year, the IndieGogo campaign received more than $9,000 in donations of its $100,000 goal.

On July 31st, 2017, Newsweek^[6] published an article about the books and the coincidences therein. They wrote:

The Last President doesn’t follow the same fictional narrative of Lockwood’s previous novels, though the links to Trump are once again abundantly clear. The president’s hometown of New York City is fearing the collapse of the republic in this book, also titled 1900, immediately following the transition of presidential power. Some Americans begin forming a resistance, protesting what was seen as a corrupt and unethical election process.

The following day, Snopes ^[7] confirmed that the books were, in fact, real, as were the coincidences outlined in various social media posts.

On August 9th, 2017, YouTuber MrMBB333 posted a video about the books entitled "Just plain bizarre! – 124-year-old books with VERY weird parallels to 2016-17." The post received more than 1.8 million views in less than two years (shown below, left).

On January 16th, 2019, Twitter^[8] user @Casa_parra tweeted about the books. Within one week, the post received more than 212,000 retweets and 384,000 likes (shown below, right).

That week, on January 21st, 2019, The Daily Dot ^[9] published a refuted the theory as a response to the viral tweet. They explained that the books were written by Lockwood, who was a lawyer and lecturer, "who dabbled in writing, producing two Baron Trump novels and the speculative fiction work 1900, as well as some poetry," but that was largely a failure as a write. The books "flopped" and received negative reviews.

They continue to describe how the theorists "Over-emphasize irrelevant details while ignoring those that falsify the conspiracy theory." They write that, aside from a few coincidences, "Marvelous Underground Journey is pure fantasy. The book is full of alternate dimensions, monsters, giants, demons, racist caricatures of natives, and a long trip into the land of 'Queen Galaxa.'" Additionally, they write while some of the details were interesting, they ignore the larger picture:

Conspiracy theorists have jumped on 1900 populist president’s having a cabinet member with the last name “Pence,” that character is secretary of agriculture, and from Colorado. The only similarity with Vice President Mike Pence is the last name. 1900 mostly revolves around esoteric concepts in monetary policy and congressional procedure--one reason why the book was essentially forgotten.

Search Interest

External References