Ultron, Ego, Hela, the Grandmaster and all the rest should watch out, as season 2 of Luke Cage has confirmed the existence of a scarier villain than Thanos in the MCU: Donald Trump. The reveal comes in the final episode of the run, so if you’re avoiding spoilers, then look away now.
The finale of season 2 sees Luke Cage using his celebrity to make things better for the people and communities of Harlem. He summarizes his ambitions with the slogan “Make Harlem Great Again,” a clear reference to Donald Trump’s famous “Make America Great Again.” This doesn’t go unnoticed by supporting characters, either, with his friend D.W. referring to the hero as “Luke Trump.” Whatever the motivations, this line of dialogue confirms that Donald Trump at least exists, or existed within the MCU.
What we don’t know is whether he became President or not. Marvel Studios have gone out of their way to avoid contemporary political references in the franchise (which is probably a smart move given how quickly they’ll date the movies), with the current President being the fictional Matthew Ellis, who first popped up in Iron Man 3 and after a namedrop in Captain America: The Winter Soldier has been mainly relegated to appearances in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Â
Within the timeline of the universe, he’s supposed to have succeeded Barack Obama, so given that “Make America Great Again” was Trump’s election slogan, we can either assume that Ellis won against Trump, or that Trump challenged him at the end of his first term (and possibly emerged victorious).
Whatever the case, the MCU heroes remaining after Infinity War should be incredibly nervous now that Trump’s corpulent presence has been confirmed in their universe. Still, at least Captain America’s got some experience battling people like him after he took care of Red Skull back in World War II.
There’s also the possibility that Trump collapsed into a pile of ash along with half of all sentient life. Honestly, if it came down to bringing back all our favorites like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Black Panther BUT ALSO having to resurrect Trump, it’d be a pretty difficult call.
