Top 10 Veep Plotlines That Became a Reality
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Top 10 Veep Plotlines That Became A Reality
Welcome to MsMojo, and today were counting down our picks for the most bizarre instances in which the fictional work of political satire Veep seemed to accurately foreshadow occurrences in real life.
Listen to enough political speeches and youll notice a few favorite words that appear over and over again. In the season two episode Hostages, the show poked fun at this trend when deputy communications director Dan Egan[a] slipped one such buzzword into Selina Meyers speech: robust. Dan predicts that the word will become the next political darling, and it doesnt even take long for that prediction to come true. That same year, robust was used so many times by politicians and other public figures that the BBC named it one of the most overused words of the year. Fast forward to the 2016 U.S. presidential campaigns, and there it was again, featured in several manifestos, including that of Republican candidate Rand Paul.
The season four episode Data begins with a PR nightmare in President Meyers office. After Selina mentions a girl living with HIV during an interview, internet sleuths piece together her identity and dox her, leaving her and her family ostracized. Later, as Selina leaves a campaign rally, she tries to do some damage control with an off-the-cuff statement to the press. Unfortunately, her words are completely upstaged by a poorly timed fireworks display. Five years after this episode aired, real-life caught up with the show when President Donald Trump learned of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death while leaving a campaign rally. He scrambled to offer a solemn tribute, only to be drowned out by Elton Johns Tiny Dancer blasting in the background.
Conspiracy theorists have been around forever, but thanks to the internet, their isolated ramblings have now gone global. Once relegated to fringe corners like 4chan and QAnon threads, they got a boost during the Trump era, leading to figures like Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, and Lauren Boebert becoming elected officials. These individuals seem to have taken notes from Veeps Jonah Ryan. Although he started as a bumbling White House liaison, Jonah somehow rose to become a Representative from New Hampshire. But his evolution wasnt just in job title alone, it was a full-blown dive into radical right-wing politics, complete with bizarre conspiracy theories. Just like his real-life counterparts, the more unhinged Jonah got, the more it seemed to work in his favor.
Government shutdowns have been depicted in several political-themed shows, from House of Cards to Parks and Recreation. But it was Veep that seemed to foreshadow one just months before it actually happened. In the seventh episode of season two, the government grinds to a halt, triggering a series of ridiculous events, including a man getting killed by a bear, due to park rangers being furloughed. While government shutdowns arent exactly unheard of in real life, there hadnt been one in almost 20 years when this episode aired in June 2013. However, just four months later, the U.S. federal government went into a shutdown, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers stuck in limbo. Fortunately, there were no real-life bear-inflicted deaths as a result.
Jonah Ryans political climb doesnt just stop at Congress. In season seven, he sets his sights on the presidency and goes head-to-head with Selina for the ticket. During his campaign, Jonah takes an anti-vaccination stance, peddling misinformation at his rallies. Ironically, he soon contracts chickenpox from his step-son and causes a massive outbreak by infecting attendees at one such rally. Just days after this episode aired, news broke that a Kentucky teenager who was banned from school for refusing vaccinations had contracted chickenpox. The parallels dont end there. Falling vaccination rates in the U.S. have paved the way for the comeback of diseases like measles, most notably in 2019, in New York and Washington, and again in 2025, in Texas.
Since he descended that escalator in 2015, Donald Trump has waged a relentless war against immigrants. While Veep didnt exactly predict his general hostility toward illegal immigration, it did eerily foreshadow a specific moment from his presidency. At a campaign rally in 2019, Trump revisited the topic, and when one of the attendees suggested violence as a permanent solution, he merely laughed it off. That moment mirrored a scene from Veeps seventh season, where a supporter of Jonah Ryan made the same suggestion in response to his tirade on immigration. The parallel was so uncanny that it inspired a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Colbert teleports into the Veep universe and warns them to be more careful with their storylines.
In season three, Selina Meyer releases her memoir Some New Beginnings, just before announcing her candidacy for president. The books press tour quickly evolves into a makeshift campaign, as Selina travels to Iowa, under the guise of promoting the memoir, to court potential caucus voters. If this strategy feels familiar, its because a real-life parallel unfolded shortly after. In June 2014, Hillary Clinton published her memoir Hard Choices, which chronicled her 2008 presidential run and tenure as Secretary of State. But Clintons book tour functioned more like a political campaign. It was handled by seasoned campaign operatives, rather than traditional publicists, and each stop featured a Ready for Hillary SuperPAC bus. Like Selina, Clinton released the memoir just ahead of launching her 2016 presidential bid.
There are more similarities between Selina Meyer and Hillary Clinton than just a pre-campaign memoir. Anyone who followed the 2016 U.S. presidential election remembers the controversy surrounding Clintons use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. Some even contend that the FBIs decision to reopen their investigation into the issue mere days before the election played a decisive role in her defeat. But years before this real-life controversy, Selina also endured her own email scandal in the first season of Veep. After she fires a Secret Service agent for smiling on duty, she is compelled to release all official correspondence, including some of her embarrassing private emails.
The 2020 U.S. presidential election was undeniably one of the most chaotic in modern American history. Vote-counting dragged on for days, with Trump and his supporters chanting count the votes in states where he trailed Joe Biden, while simultaneously demanding a halt to counting in states where he was ahead. This was yet another case of life imitating Veep. In the show, Selina Meyer and her opponent Bill OBrien tie in the electoral college. But after 10,000 absentee ballots are found hidden by an anti-Selina postal worker in Nevada, she demands a state recount. Initially, OBriens supporters rally to stop the count, but when the ballots turn out to be military votes favoring their candidate, they switch sides and change their tune.
Although weve highlighted certain similarities between her and Hillary Clinton, the real-life politician Selina Meyers most closely mirrors is Kamala Harris. Both women rose from the Senate to become the first female Vice President, and their awkward speech patterns have frequently drawn parallels. However, their most striking similarity lies in how they both got a shot at the top office after the sitting president chose not to seek re-election. For Selina, that opportunity came in season three when President Hughes resigned to care for his wife, making her the new president. A full decade later, Harris found herself in a similar position after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed her as the Democratic Partys candidate.
Welcome to MsMojo, and today were counting down our picks for the most bizarre instances in which the fictional work of political satire Veep seemed to accurately foreshadow occurrences in real life.
#10: Use of the Buzzword Robust
Listen to enough political speeches and youll notice a few favorite words that appear over and over again. In the season two episode Hostages, the show poked fun at this trend when deputy communications director Dan Egan[a] slipped one such buzzword into Selina Meyers speech: robust. Dan predicts that the word will become the next political darling, and it doesnt even take long for that prediction to come true. That same year, robust was used so many times by politicians and other public figures that the BBC named it one of the most overused words of the year. Fast forward to the 2016 U.S. presidential campaigns, and there it was again, featured in several manifestos, including that of Republican candidate Rand Paul.
#9: Selina Meyers Fireworks Speech
The season four episode Data begins with a PR nightmare in President Meyers office. After Selina mentions a girl living with HIV during an interview, internet sleuths piece together her identity and dox her, leaving her and her family ostracized. Later, as Selina leaves a campaign rally, she tries to do some damage control with an off-the-cuff statement to the press. Unfortunately, her words are completely upstaged by a poorly timed fireworks display. Five years after this episode aired, real-life caught up with the show when President Donald Trump learned of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death while leaving a campaign rally. He scrambled to offer a solemn tribute, only to be drowned out by Elton Johns Tiny Dancer blasting in the background.
#8: Conspiracy Theorists in Congress
Conspiracy theorists have been around forever, but thanks to the internet, their isolated ramblings have now gone global. Once relegated to fringe corners like 4chan and QAnon threads, they got a boost during the Trump era, leading to figures like Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, and Lauren Boebert becoming elected officials. These individuals seem to have taken notes from Veeps Jonah Ryan. Although he started as a bumbling White House liaison, Jonah somehow rose to become a Representative from New Hampshire. But his evolution wasnt just in job title alone, it was a full-blown dive into radical right-wing politics, complete with bizarre conspiracy theories. Just like his real-life counterparts, the more unhinged Jonah got, the more it seemed to work in his favor.
#7: A Government Shutdown
Government shutdowns have been depicted in several political-themed shows, from House of Cards to Parks and Recreation. But it was Veep that seemed to foreshadow one just months before it actually happened. In the seventh episode of season two, the government grinds to a halt, triggering a series of ridiculous events, including a man getting killed by a bear, due to park rangers being furloughed. While government shutdowns arent exactly unheard of in real life, there hadnt been one in almost 20 years when this episode aired in June 2013. However, just four months later, the U.S. federal government went into a shutdown, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers stuck in limbo. Fortunately, there were no real-life bear-inflicted deaths as a result.
#6: Anti-vaxxers Cause Disease Outbreak
Jonah Ryans political climb doesnt just stop at Congress. In season seven, he sets his sights on the presidency and goes head-to-head with Selina for the ticket. During his campaign, Jonah takes an anti-vaccination stance, peddling misinformation at his rallies. Ironically, he soon contracts chickenpox from his step-son and causes a massive outbreak by infecting attendees at one such rally. Just days after this episode aired, news broke that a Kentucky teenager who was banned from school for refusing vaccinations had contracted chickenpox. The parallels dont end there. Falling vaccination rates in the U.S. have paved the way for the comeback of diseases like measles, most notably in 2019, in New York and Washington, and again in 2025, in Texas.
#5: Calls for Violence Against Immigrants
Since he descended that escalator in 2015, Donald Trump has waged a relentless war against immigrants. While Veep didnt exactly predict his general hostility toward illegal immigration, it did eerily foreshadow a specific moment from his presidency. At a campaign rally in 2019, Trump revisited the topic, and when one of the attendees suggested violence as a permanent solution, he merely laughed it off. That moment mirrored a scene from Veeps seventh season, where a supporter of Jonah Ryan made the same suggestion in response to his tirade on immigration. The parallel was so uncanny that it inspired a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Colbert teleports into the Veep universe and warns them to be more careful with their storylines.
#4: Selina Meyers Pre-campaign Memoir
In season three, Selina Meyer releases her memoir Some New Beginnings, just before announcing her candidacy for president. The books press tour quickly evolves into a makeshift campaign, as Selina travels to Iowa, under the guise of promoting the memoir, to court potential caucus voters. If this strategy feels familiar, its because a real-life parallel unfolded shortly after. In June 2014, Hillary Clinton published her memoir Hard Choices, which chronicled her 2008 presidential run and tenure as Secretary of State. But Clintons book tour functioned more like a political campaign. It was handled by seasoned campaign operatives, rather than traditional publicists, and each stop featured a Ready for Hillary SuperPAC bus. Like Selina, Clinton released the memoir just ahead of launching her 2016 presidential bid.
#3: The Private Email Scandal
There are more similarities between Selina Meyer and Hillary Clinton than just a pre-campaign memoir. Anyone who followed the 2016 U.S. presidential election remembers the controversy surrounding Clintons use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. Some even contend that the FBIs decision to reopen their investigation into the issue mere days before the election played a decisive role in her defeat. But years before this real-life controversy, Selina also endured her own email scandal in the first season of Veep. After she fires a Secret Service agent for smiling on duty, she is compelled to release all official correspondence, including some of her embarrassing private emails.
#2: Count the Votes / Stop the Count
The 2020 U.S. presidential election was undeniably one of the most chaotic in modern American history. Vote-counting dragged on for days, with Trump and his supporters chanting count the votes in states where he trailed Joe Biden, while simultaneously demanding a halt to counting in states where he was ahead. This was yet another case of life imitating Veep. In the show, Selina Meyer and her opponent Bill OBrien tie in the electoral college. But after 10,000 absentee ballots are found hidden by an anti-Selina postal worker in Nevada, she demands a state recount. Initially, OBriens supporters rally to stop the count, but when the ballots turn out to be military votes favoring their candidate, they switch sides and change their tune.
#1: President Steps Down for First Female Vice President
Although weve highlighted certain similarities between her and Hillary Clinton, the real-life politician Selina Meyers most closely mirrors is Kamala Harris. Both women rose from the Senate to become the first female Vice President, and their awkward speech patterns have frequently drawn parallels. However, their most striking similarity lies in how they both got a shot at the top office after the sitting president chose not to seek re-election. For Selina, that opportunity came in season three when President Hughes resigned to care for his wife, making her the new president. A full decade later, Harris found herself in a similar position after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed her as the Democratic Partys candidate.
What plotlines from Veep do you think might come true in the near future? Make your predictions in the comments below.
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