By Brian Stelter
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Sunday’s Boston Globe is warning readers about the “deeply troubling” risks of a Donald Trump presidency by publishing an imaginary front page from April 9, 2017.
“Deportations to Begin,” the top headline blares. “Markets sink as trade war looms,” says another. “New libel law targets ‘absolute scum’ in press,” says a third.
The satirical front page — which replaces the usual front of the newspaper’s Ideas section — includes jokes but seeks to make a very serious point.
“This is an exercise in taking Donald Trump at his word,” Ideas section editor Katie Kingsbury told CNNMoney.
A tweet from the Globe called it “the front page we hope we never have to print.”
The section front includes an “editor’s note” that says “This is Donald Trump’s America.” It was produced by the editorial page of the Globe, which is separate from the newsroom.
When readers open up the section, they’ll see a full-page editorial on page two titled “GOP Must Stop Trump.” The editorial says Ted Cruz would be “perhaps more dangerous” than Trump and asserts that the party should rally behind Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan at the convention instead.
The actual Ideas section starts on page three. The faux front page resembles an April Fools Day prank by a college newspaper — but is bound to get a lot more attention.
“Our goal is to create a conversation about what a Donald Trump presidency could look like,” Kingsbury said.
The “conversation” was jump-started when the widely-read Drudge Report posted photos of the 2017 front page and called it “fake news.”
Kingsbury disputed that description. “It’s a satire produced by the Editorial Page — this will be clear to readers of the Globe when they get their papers,” she said.
The page includes many actual Trump quotes, including his pledge to deport criminals who are in the United States illegally “so fast your head will spin,” and his comment that “70 to 75% of reporters are absolutely dishonest. Absolute scum. Remember that. Scum.”
One of the articles quips that Fox News host Megyn Kelly, in a Trump presidency, has been “placed on a White House blacklist.”
There are numerous jokes, including the renaming of Yellowstone National Park as Trump National Park and a proposal to remake Trump’s reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” using “hand puppets.”
The page also warns of a potential “global recession” due to Trump’s trade barriers, including a chart portraying a 6,500-point drop in the Dow. Another headline, “U.S. soldiers refuse orders to kill ISIS families,” references Trump’s comment that the military should “take out” the families of terrorists.
The-CNN-Wire
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