Ingersoll Lockwood: The author who predicted Trump's presidency
Discover Ingersoll Lockwood’s forgotten 19th-century novels and how they’ve sparked viral theories about the Trump family, politics and prophecy.
Image: Donald Trump with his wife, Ivanka, and son, Barron | Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com
In 2025, social media had a field day over a set of curious, long-forgotten children’s books from the 19th century. Why? Because they seemed to predict the modern political climate down to a moody adolescent named Baron Trump and a mentor named Don.
If that sounds intriguing, you’re in good company with us here at Sky HISTORY. Because believe it or not, these quirky coincidences have a weirdly magnetic pull.
A Victorian oracle in tweed?
Ingersoll Lockwood (1841–1918) was a lawyer, occasional diplomat and part-time children’s author. This last hobby is where things get interesting. In 1893 he published a book titled Baron Trump’s Marvelous Underground Adventure followed by Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and his Wonderful Dog Bulger in 1889.
They recount the misadventures of a precocious aristocrat, Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp (nicknamed Baron Trump) who lives in Castle Trump. He boasts of his big brain and follows a wise mentor named Don into bizarre underground worlds where they meet talking animals, giants and other mythical creatures.
A boy named Baron, a famous family surname, a mentor called Don and a posh, Trump-branded abode. The parallels to today’s headlines do more than intrigue believers in time travel. They’re enough to make even a sceptic pause and look twice.
The Last President: dystopia in 1896
Then came the odd twist: a third book called The Last President published in 1896. It abandons fantasy for an unsettling political fable. In a scarily blue-sky prediction, Lockwood imagined an outsider from New York suddenly elected president, sending Manhattan into frenzied chaos. We’re talking riots, mobs on Fifth Avenue and mass panic in the streets. And that Fifth Avenue address? The future site of Trump Tower. The novel also includes a 'Pence' in a position of authority alongside the populist leader.
How a dystopian story went viral
It took until 2017 for that dusty volume to blow up. Yes, right as Donald Trump’s presidency took shape. A few Redditors and TikTok theorists piled it all together and suddenly, a Victorian soothsayer theme was born.
Debunking the theories
But here’s the kicker: the original books were obscure even in their time. Early reviews called them 'fantastic and grotesque' and for the most part, they were considered flops.
As far as the 'Don' mentor goes, he was far from a wink to the 47th president of the United States. The name Don was just a Spanish honorific, the equivalent of titles like Mr, Professor and Sir in English.
And as for Baron Trump? Well, he was German in the books.
The TikTok revival
Lockwood’s books might have stayed buried in library archives if not for the internet’s obsession with hidden prophecies. After the 'Baron Trump' parallels first went viral in 2017, TikTok gave them a second life in 2025.
Clips tagged with #LastPresident and #BaronTrump racked up millions of views, with users enthusiastically connecting Lockwood’s outsider president to the modern political climate. Some videos leaned into parody, while others pushed full-blown conspiracy theories about time travel, coded warnings and the beginning of the end.
Our take? The viral moment says less about Lockwood’s foresight than it does about our appetite for viral content. A Victorian-era children’s adventure story and a forgotten dystopian novel become irresistible when chopped into 30-second bursts. In the context of a TikTok algorithm, coincidence can look a lot like prophecy.
Financial turmoil looms
One of the darker threads running through The Last President is the financial turmoil that follows the outsider’s victory. In Lockwood’s tale, Wall Street reels almost overnight. Banks totter, businesses shutter and the stock exchange descends into chaos as investors scramble to salvage their fortunes.
The panic doesn’t stay confined to boardrooms though. Ordinary families shoulder the heaviest burden as jobs vanish and savings evaporate. It reads less like a fantastical subplot and more like an anxious sketch of what happens when faith in institutions (like the US political system) buckles.
There’s no denying the themes feel uncomfortably familiar. No wonder TikTokers were quick to pick up on Lockwood’s warnings of inflation, economic inequality and political instability more than a century later. And of course, there are stark similarities to the US Capitol riots in 2021.
Nostalgia meets narrative
So why does it stick? Because Lockwood’s novels leave just enough gaps for readers to fill in. Humans have a tendency to look for patterns anywhere they can find them. A forgotten children’s story with a character called Baron Trump is bound to invite connections, whether or not they were ever there to begin with.
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