Donald Trump Gets the Anime Treatment — And Suddenly South Park Looks Tame
Think you’ve seen everything anime can throw at you? There’s a series that recasts Donald Trump as a uniformed teen navigating cliques, crushes, and classroom chaos at a Japanese high school — and yes, it’s real.
Yes, there is an anime where Donald Trump is a Japanese high schooler. It exists, it is real, and it is weirder than you think.
Wait, what is this thing?
The show is called 'Hey, President Trap-kun!' and it is a short, deliberately silly Japanese parody that reimagines Trump as a kid dropped into a Japanese high school. It is adapted from a manga and plays everything broad: think quick gags, a lot of face-value satire, and a lead character who is intentionally obnoxious to his classmates.
The setup: in the story, Trump heads to a Japanese high school to shore up international relations during a tense moment in global politics. Instead of learning the culture, he turns the spotlight on himself and starts rapping. No, seriously. He performs swagger-heavy numbers about who he is, what he is dealing with as a fish out of water, and even the many supposed uses of his hair. The bit is that his self-promo ends up winning over the local teens, who see him as a bold, inspirational oddball. Also, in one of the show’s more surreal touches, he literally has a lunchbox in his head. You read that right.
How short is short?
Short-short. The anime ran just two episodes, each under a minute. It premiered in May 2017, was directed by Takashi Taniguchi, and is listed on MyAnimeList with a 3.63 score at the time of this writing. The animation is bare-bones by design, but if you are into high-speed parody, there are laughs to be had.
So parody anime is a thing now?
It is not the dominant lane in anime, but every so often a micro-parody like this hits the internet and spreads fast. 'Trap-kun!' is one of those: quick to watch, easy to share, and absolutely built for the what-did-I-just-see crowd.
Trump keeps popping up in anime and manga
If you are wondering whether this is a one-off, it is not. Trump has shown up across Japanese media, sometimes as a straight-up spoof and sometimes woven into the plot a bit more seriously. One notable case is a 'Death Note' one-shot by creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata: Trump actually gets the Death Note, then does not use it and ends up giving it back to its original owner. Beyond that, he has cameoed or been referenced in a bunch of big titles.
- Death Note (post-2006 one-shot: he receives the Death Note but returns it unused)
- Gintama
- Hinomaru Sumo
- Dr. Stone
- Baki the Grappler
- Devilman Crybaby
- Inuyashiki
- Golgo 13
Sometimes he is a broad caricature, other times the story actually integrates him as a character with an arc. Either way, his polarizing persona makes for easy shorthand, and fans tend to enjoy the wild takes.
Bottom line
'Hey, President Trap-kun!' is a fast, oddball time capsule from 2017: two micro-episodes, a rap-happy schoolkid version of the U.S. president, a lunchbox in his head, and a whole lot of wink-wink satire. If you are curious, it is about a minute of your life. Should Trump get a full-blown anime series of his own? Tell me where you land.