Watching the made-for-TV movie The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits (1996) Rockford tells Angel that he’s “living like Donald Trump”. I know there have been a number of older TV shows that mention him, but can’t recall specific shows/episodes at the moment. Hoping to compile a list here, just out of curiosity.
Mentions from shows after his political career and run on The Apprentice DO NOT count for this list. So things from before around 2004.
Trump appeared on Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous show in 1994.
You will be unsurprised to learn that even then he was making disturbing comments.
He was mentioned often in Just Shoot Me as Jack Gallo (George Segal) talked about the bets he had with him and trying to outdo him in different ways.
That’s probably one of the series I remember hearing it in recently, on Rewind TV. Mad About You and Rules of Engagement seem like likely ones, too, now that I think about it.
There was old Motorweek review that they posted to their YouTube channel where host John Davis comments that the car being reviewed is “big enough for Donald Trump… or at least his ego.” I do not recall what specific video it was, but IIRC it was something that originally aired around the early 1990s.
A 1988 episode of Sesame Street featured a “Grouch” muppet named Ronald Grump, who wanted to tear down Oscar’s trash can so he could build a skyscraper.
Another “evil real estate developer” character named Ronald Grump appeared in a 1994 episode, but this time he was a human played by Joe Pesci.
Do comic strips count? There was a whole run of Bloom County from the late '80s where Trump’s brain was transplanted into Bill the Cat. It was scathing.
There are references to both Trump and Hillary Clinton, the two future 2016 presidential nominees, in 1995’s Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
Sure. I think I remember Doonesbury mentions, too.
Trump made a few cameo appearances in 80s and 90s television, as far back as the mid-80s. There was a The Jeffersons episode in 1985 where they went to Atlantic City, where he made an uncredited appearance. I remember him in an episode of The Fresh Prince as well. He always plays himself, a real estate tycoon.
April 1, 1992
In a 1998 episode of Friends, Chandler and Monica talk about having seen Donald Trump waiting for an elevator in a hotel they were staying at. Earlier the same year, Chandler botched a Trump joke directed at Joey for wearing a blue blazer.
Neither reference was really about Trump, in either a positive or negative way.
Gremlins 2 had real estate tycoon Daniel Clamp.
Not television but he’s parodied in The Coup’s song “Pimps (Free Stylin’ at the Fortune 500 Club)” from 1994. The song is set at a fancy party where rich people decide to rap. Trump interrupts and drops a verse, mostly about money and being a wannabe gangster. The other rich people are not impressed and do not wish to hear more from him.
I remember the 911 operator saying ‘yeah, and I’m gonna marry Donald Trump.’ Do you recall the Hillary reference?
Of course there’s the eerily prescient flash-forward scene in the 2000 Simpsons episode “Bart to the Future” where President Lisa Simpson mentions the budget crunch she inherited from President Trump.
In a cold open for Saturday Night Live, Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks (RIP to both) parodied Trump and Ivana during their divorce proceedings (which Google AI says was finalized in 1992).
Video here.
Do we have an earlier mention?
Edit: Bloom County would probably predate this.
Darrell Hammond also portrayed Trump as a Reform Party presidential candidate in a mid-90s SNL cold open, announcing his plans to tear down the White House and replace it with a high-rise casino hotel called the Donald House.
If you’re considering comic strips, you should also look at the frequent mentions in Spy magazine, where he was described as a “short-fingered vulgarian.”
Would Donald Trump’s cameo in Bobby Brown’s “On Our Own” video (Ghostbusters II Soundtrack) be the kind of thing we’re looking for?
