A 19th-century book series featuring a character called Baron Trump and his guide named Don has resurfaced conspiracy theories involving former president Donald Trump and his youngest son, Barron.
Time travel talk was reignited after a viral TikTok on Tuesday, and since viewed more than 5.9 million times, discussed Ingersoll Lockwood's 1888 publication Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey and 1896's The Last President.
Lockwood's stories became a hot topic of conspiracy theorists, some of whom claim the Trump family has a time machine, after the Republican entered the White House in 2016.
In the new video post, user mattyicerants said: "I've thought about this every day for the past two years: In 1888, a man named Ingersoll Lockwood wrote a book called Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey, where a 10-year-old boy named Baron Trump who has a mentor named Don, who is a rich man who lives on Fifth Avenue in New York City. He and Don travel to Russia to find a portal to a magical underground world."
The TikTok user pointed out the books' author lived in New York City at the same time as Serbian-American scientist Nikola Tesla, who some conspiracy theorists often suggest was a time traveler.
The name of the book's character, Baron, which is short for the Germanic name "Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp," is further evidence of time travel, according to some. In real life, ex-President Trump descends from German immigrants to the U.S.
In the novels, Baron and Don discover a portal to a different world. It is this point that conspiracy theories have jumped on in the past: could Lockwood have been talking about time travel?
"The thing about time travel is that if it's ever to exist [then] it already does," said one comment on the post that received its own 35.4k likes.
Pence and The Last President
It is the last book of the series that really adds fuel to the conspiracy fire: The Last President, also known as 1900. Amid the upheaval of the Trump presidency and post-presidency, some say this book was warning us all along.
In the novel, the entire East Side of New York City is "in a state of uproar" in November after a candidate is unexpectedly elected despite opposition to him.
It is the tumultuous election of Bryan, supported by "mobs of vast size [that] are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists," that sparks this. These groups "threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years."
The mob plans to march to a hotel on Fifth Avenue, the site of Trump Tower today.
The president in the book even appoints a man to his cabinet named Pence, another striking coincidence given that Trump's vice president was Mike Pence.
One TikTok comment that read, "Too many coincidences is mathematically impossible," received more than 16,000 votes.
Others tied this time travel theory with ideas that The Simpsons TV show predicts the future, saying: "Could that be who writing for the Simpsons?"
"Sounds like Ingersoll would use the Trump family as an inspiration for the story since they were alive at the same time," one TikTok-user commented.
Original poster mattyicerants also referenced the theory, and insisted Tesla was working on time travel and "all sorts of craziness."
Time travel, sadly, remains an unconquered feat of human engineering.
Lockwood was born and raised in New York and passed away, aged 77, in 1918—18 years after The Last President was published.
But the coincidental nature of parallels between his books and modern-day America continues to enthrall.
As one TikTok user put it: "I came to TikTok for my usual dog videos and thirst traps and now I'm over here doing a research project like I'm back in college."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Benjamin Lynch is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is U.S. politics and national affairs and he ... Read more
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