NO LAUGHING MATTER An online version of what a front page might look like should Republican front-runner Donald Trump win the presidency was posted by The Boston Globe on the website’s editorial page. AFP
WASHINGTON—Mass deportations, riots and a looming trade war: the Boston Globe on Sunday ran a fake front page imagining the state of America under a Donald Trump presidency—and denouncing his “deeply disturbing” vision.
Posted on the US newspaper’s editorial page under the headline “The GOP must stop Trump,” the mockup appeared three months before the Republican Party convention confirms its White House nominee.
“Deportations to begin,” read the Globe’s fake headline, dated April 9, 2017, above a spoof article about Trump’s push to expel more than 11 million undocumented immigrants—sparking nationwide riots and curfews.
“This is Donald Trump’s America,” reads a note from the Globe’s editor at the foot of the page. “What you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP front-runner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action.”
Grim scenarios
One article features US soldiers refusing to obey orders to kill the families of Islamic State fighters, another has a Republican-controlled Congress passing a libel law targeting “absolute scum” in the press—both riffs on campaign pronouncements by Trump.
“Markets sink as trade war looms,” reads the headline of a piece detailing the meltdown of US commercial relations with both China and Mexico.
A separate story reports how Trump prompted a diplomatic crisis with China after naming his dog, a Shar-Pei, after Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan.
“I don’t know why she’s so offended, I love cute puppies and I love women! It’s not like I tweeted out a photo of a Rottweiler named (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel,” he was quoted as saying.
Although Trump leads the Republican primary race, he is projected to lose in a landslide in a general election matchup against the likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
But the paper’s editorial warned that the prospect—however slim—of the billionaire real estate mogul winning the highest office in the land “demands an active and engaged opposition.”
‘Dangerous deal’
“Donald J. Trump’s vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American,” it said, warning that Trump could be one of the world’s next “demagogic strongmen.” The satirical front page “is an exercise in taking a man at his word. And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page,” the editorial said.
“It requires an opposition as focused on denying Trump the White House as the candidate is flippant and reckless about securing it.”
The Globe’s editors pointed to Trump’s “winks and nods at political violence at his rallies,” among other controversies.
Alternative nominee
“If Trump were a politician running such a campaign in a foreign country right now, the US state department would probably be condemning him,” it added.
“For now, Republicans ought to focus on doing the right thing: putting up every legitimate roadblock to Trump that they can.”
The Globe’s editorial urged Republican leaders to pick an alternative nominee, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan or businessman and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, should Trump fail to secure a majority of delegates before the convention in July.
“It is better to lose with principle than to accept a dangerous deal from a demagogue,” it said. AFP