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The Boston Globe mocked up a front page with Donald Trump as president and it's terrifying

Photo: Christopher Gregory/Getty Images
Photo: Christopher Gregory/Getty Images

The Boston Globe has printed a fake front page dated 9 April 2017, based on a future in which Donald Trump is president of the United States.

With an image of the presidential hopeful and the headline “Deportations to begin” above the fold, the page paints a grim picture of the US under a Trump White House:

Photo: Boston Globe

The main story builds on Trump's previous statements on immigration:

Trump reiterated his promise to eject some 11.3m illegal workers on a two-year timetable – “so fast that your head will spin.”

The page also laments an inevitable trade war with Mexico and China, and a "new libel law" that seeks to target journalists.

The Boston Globe made light of some of the more ridiculous aspects of a possible Trump-led America: the Old Post Office building in Washington D.C. being converted into a Trump International Hotel, as well as Trump being shortlisted for the Nobel Prize because he:

...heal[ed] a 1,385-year-old schism between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, which has fueled bloody conflicts across the globe for centuries.

The editorial said:

It is an exercise in taking a man at his word.

And while most people have appreciated the satirical front page, there are, of course, some Trump supporters have expressed how much they liked it:

Ultimately, the dark shadow Trump seems to have cast over the US is summed up in a few damning sentences:

He winks and nods at political violence at his rallies. He says he wants to “open up” libel laws to punish critics in the news media and calls them “scum.” He promised to shut out an entire class of immigrants and visitors to the United States on the sole basis of their religion.

The toxic mix of violent intimidation, hostility to criticism, and explicit scapegoating of minorities shows a political movement is taking hold in America.

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