claim: Author Ingersoll Lockwood wrote the books "Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey" and "1900: or, The Last President" in the 1890s.
origin: Forget for a moment the seemingly endless series of revelations about the Trump White Houseâ€™s staffing woes, the Russia investigation, and the Seth Rich conspiracy. A pressing matter, largely ignored by the mainstream media has come up: Is Donald Trump a time traveler?Â The question has been circulating on conspiracy theory web sites for several months and is backed by various pieces of â€œevidenceâ€ (such as Donald Trumpâ€™s uncle John Trumpâ€™s purported relationship with Nikola Tesla). Now a series of books published over century ago is receiving attention for their seemingly all-too-eerie connections to the Trump family. The books, one of which is titledÂ Baron Trumpâ€™s Marvelous Underground Journey, have been discussed on both reddit and 4chan:Â Baron Trumpâ€™s Marvelous Underground Journey, and its sequel 1900: or,Â The Last President, are indeed real books by writer Ingersoll Lockwood. (We havenâ€™t been able to uncover any evidence proving that Donald Trump and his family have access to a time machine, however).Â Both of the books are archived by the Library of CongressÂ and can be read in full on Archive.org. Baron Trumpâ€™s Marvelous Underground JourneyÂ was published in 1893 and 1900: or, The Last President came out aÂ few years later.Â According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Lockwood penned at least one other book about the Baron Trump character, The Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulgar,Â which was published in 1890.Â Â A July 2017 article inÂ NewsweekÂ noted several prescient-seeming connections, such as the novelâ€™s Russian setting, a character named â€œDon,â€ and a â€œFifth Avenue Hotelâ€ in New York City, where Trump Tower currently stands: < There are some incredible connections to be made to the first family of the United States and Lockwoodâ€™s novels from the turn of the 19th century. For starters, the main characterâ€™s name is the same as President Donald Trumpâ€™s son, albeit spelt differently. Trumpâ€™s adventures begin in Russia, and are guided thanks to directions provided by â€œthe master of all masters,â€Â a man named â€œDon.â€ Before leaving for his voyage through the unknown, Trump is told of his familyâ€™s motto: â€œThe pathway to glory is strewn with pitfalls and dangers.â€ [â€¦] But by Lockwoodâ€™s third novel,Â The Last President, things become even more eerily linked to the present day. The story begins with a scene from a panicked New York City in early November, describing a â€œstate of uproarâ€Â after the election of an enormously opposed outsider candidate. â€œThe entire East Side is in a state of uproar,â€Â police officers shouted through the streets, warning city folk to stay indoors for the night. â€œMobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years.â€ â€œThe Fifth Avenue Hotel will be the first to feel the fury of the mob,â€Â the novel continues, citing an address in New York City where Trump Tower now stands. â€œWould the troops be in time to save it?â€ > However, some of these connections wereÂ slightly exaggerated or outright misstated. For one, the main character is called Baron Trump not because his name is Baron but because he is a baron â€” in other words, thatâ€™s his title. The book begins with a â€œBiographical Notice of Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp, Commonly Called Little Baron Trumpâ€:Â < As doubting Thomases seem to take particular pleasure in popping up on all occasions, Jack-in-the-Box-like, it may be well to head them off in this particular instance by proving that Baron Trump was a real baron, and not a mere baron of the mind.Â > NewsweekÂ similarly mistakes the Don Fum characterâ€™s honorific for his name, calling him â€œa man named â€˜Don.'â€ In fact, â€œDonâ€ is a Spanish honorific meaning â€œMr.,â€ and the character (a â€œlearned Spaniardâ€) was introduced by Lockwood on page 2 ofÂ Baron Trumpâ€™s Marvelous Underground Journey:Â < It so happened at the time of Bulgerâ€™s low spirits that the elder baron had, through the kindness of an old school friend, come into possession of a fifteenth-century manuscript from the pen of a no less celebrated thinker and philosopher than the learned Spaniard, Don Constantino Bartolomeo Strepholofidgeguaneriusfum, commonly known among scholars as Don Fum, entitled â€œA World within a World.â€Â > Finally, the book mentionsâ€The Fifth Avenue Hotel,â€ meaning that it shares a street with Trump Tower. Since Fifth Avenue is, a well-known part of New York that has been the site for several high-end restaurants, shops and hotels since the late 1800s (theÂ Waldorfâ€“Astoria was constructed on Fifth Avenue in 1893), this detail seems to be more a reflection of the time it was written, and less a prescient note of where Trump Tower would eventually be constructed.Â Although these books contain some seemingly bizarre coincidences,Â they are not evidence that Donald Trump has access to a time machine. Time travel conspiracy theories such as this one pick and choose material that supports their conclusions while ignoring everything else. For instance, these books also contain giant turtles, alternate dimensions, a battle with a big white crane, a dog named Bulgar, and a little smiling man frozen in time. Since these aspects have no clear connection to the Trumps, they are omitted from the conspiracy theory.Â