Mr. Robot showrunner confirms Trump helped inspire the show’s dystopia

Donald Trump has been elected President, which means science fiction needs to find another unbelievable background detail to let the viewer or reader know they are in a dark timeline, or an alternate-reality version of actual events.

Mr. Robot, it turns out, has been critical of Trump for a long time, without making the connection explicit. Showrunner Sam Esmail explained this to a fan who said the show convinced them Clinton would be “horrible.”

While we didn’t turn up any shots of the Trump Tower on 5th Ave. in the show, our sister site Curbed mapped the real-world locations that make up the aesthetics of the show and note that “E Corp's interiors, with their stark white textured ceilings, are fittingly (or ironically?) shot inside a luxury hotel owned by the king of the one percent.” Here’s Eliot’s monologue on the one percent that Esmail is referring to:

The monologue is a bit outdated now, since Trump and his collection of investors, family members and publishers who created havens for white nationalists are operating in the open. Not even a show about paranoia thought that there would come a time when the shadow hiding that sort of manipulation would no longer be necessary.

The second season of the show, which was written and directed exclusively by Esmail, was much more pointed in its depiction of Trump:

Esmail didn’t mince words while describing the President-elect.

His advice for people who don’t know what to do next?

HIs interactions with fans for the past few days have been interesting, and I encourage you to read more, as Esmail seems to be very much aware at how strange it is that some of the harder to believe aspects of dystopian fiction have come to pass since the election.