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A screengrab shows the fake Trump presidency front page published online Saturday.
Boston Globe to publish fake front page on Trump presidency
By HADAS GOLD
The Boston Globe on Sunday will publish a satirical front page predicting headlines about a Donald Trump presidency alongside a "Stop Trump" editorial.
The fake front page will be the lead of the Globe's Sunday Ideas section and "is a work of political satire and commentary produced by the Globe's Editorial Board, not the newsroom," Globe Editorial Page Editor Ellen Clegg wrote in an email. A PDF of the front page was published on Saturday afternoon.
The banner headline on the fake page, dated a year from Sunday, reads: "Deportations to begin, President Trump calls for tripling of ICE force; riots continue." The page includes full, realistic articles about Trump's actions as president.
The main story includes mentions of an Attorney General Chris Christie, and Fox News' Megyn Kelly tweeting from a bar because she's been placed on a White House black list.
Other stories on the fake front page include "U.S. soldiers refuse orders to kill ISIS families" and details such as new libel laws targeting "absolute scum" in the press. Another story is about how Trump had offended the Chinese first lady by naming his new dog after her.
An editor's note at the bottom of the page explains why the paper chose to create it.
"This is Donald Trump's America. What you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP frontrunner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action. Many Americans might find this vision appealing, but the Globe's editorial board finds it deeply troubling," the editor's note reads.
An editorial on the following page urges the GOP to stop Trump.
"The satirical front page of this section attempts to do just that, to envision what America looks like with Trump in the White House," the editorial states. "It 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. It is a vision that demands an active and engaged opposition. It requires an opposition as focused on denying Trump the White House as the candidate is flippant and reckless about securing it."
The editorial goes on to note the controversy surrounding Trump, including his "winks and nods" to violence at his rallies.
"If Trump were a politician running such a campaign in a foreign country right now, the US State Department would probably be condemning him," the editorial states.
The editorial ends with a warning that Sen. Ted Cruz, who is currently rallying Republicans behind him as the only candidate who could stop Trump from securing the GOP nomination, could be even more dangerous.
"If the party can muster the courage to reject its first-place finisher, rejecting the runner-up should be even easier," the editorial states. "The Republican Party's standard deserves to be hoisted by an honorable and decent man, like Romney or Ryan, elected on the convention floor. It is better to lose with principle than to accept a dangerous deal from a demagogue."
In an email, the Globe's Sunday Ideas Editor Katie Kingsbury said the goal was to start a conversation and get voters who haven't voted yet to have a clear view of the future.
"This is an exercise in taking Donald Trump at his word. We decided to report out the policy positions he's pledged, to fill in the details, and to play out his vision to its natural consequences. Our goal is to create a conversation about what a Donald Trump presidency could look like and the vision he has for America's future," Kingsbury said in an email, noting that the popular sense of a Trump campaign unraveling is "wishful thinking."
"There is almost no way Ted Cruz arrives at the convention this summer with a majority of delegates. And there are still several major primaries on the horizon — New York, for one — where Trump has solid momentum. We want Americans still considering candidates going into the voting booths with a clear view of the presidency they are choosing," she said.
Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.