In a satyrical article on what a Trump presidency would look like, the Boston Globe brings us this report dated April 9, 2017:
“The $400 billion deportation program promises to be one of the most disruptive government actions attempted since desegregation. Economists estimated ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] would need more than 900,000 agents to complete the deportations in the next two years.
Thousands of protesters remain camped outside the Trump International Hotel and around the fence of the White House … The scent of tear gas pervades Lafayette Square.
Already in California, armed ICE agents confronted 30 illegal strawberry pickers on a Santa Barbara County farm and bused them to a detention center to await prosecution and a government chartered flight back to Mexico. State officials held a press conference shortly after the raid to express concern about the economic impact if “dishes go unwashed in the kitchens of San Francisco restaurants and if our $3 billion strawberry crop is ultimately left to rot.”
Headlines from Trump’s America 2017
“DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN — President Trump calls for tripling of ICE force; riots continue.”
“MARKETS SINK AS TRADE WAR LOOMS.”
Worldwide stocks plunged again Friday, completing the worst month on record as trade war with both China and Mexico seem imminent. Markets from the Dow to the FTSE to the Nikkei have sunk on speculation that China is dumping some of its US Treasury holdings after the Trump administration announced tariffs as high as 45 percent for all Chinese imports and 35 percent for some Mexican goods.
“US SOLDIERS REFUSE ORDERS TO KILL ISIS FAMILIES.”
The military faces a ‘crisis of good order and discipline,’ Pentagon officials said yesterday, after days of widespread unrest in the ranks over White House orders to kill relatives of ISIS militants … Two militants were killed in a firefight, but three women and two children were left alive, contrary to orders issued directly by President Trump.
“When the president promised to take out families of radical Islamic terrorists, he meant it,” a senior administration official told reporters traveling on Air Force One. “We have a civilian controlled military for a reason.”
“NEW LIBEL LAW TARGETS ‘ABSOLUTE SCUM’ IN PRESS – Legislation could supplant state laws.”
A Republican controlled Congress last night passed sweeping changes to libel law in the United States, moving the bill to the desk of the new president who has promised to sign it.
“So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece,” a lawsuit has a better chance of prevailing.
“Seventy to 75 percent of reporters are absolutely dishonest. Absolute scum. Remember that. Scum. Scum. Totally dishonest people,” Trump said in a ceremony on Capitol Hill with WWE star Hulk Hogan, who won a $140 million lawsuit against Gawker.com for release of a sex tape. “And I haven’t even gotten to privacy yet.”
“BANK GLITCH HALTS BORDER WALL WORK”
Construction on the new border wall with Mexico stopped suddenly on Friday, dealing a major setback to one of President Trump’s key campaign promises, after Mexico refused to pay.
“TRUMP ON NOBEL PRIZE SHORT LIST”
His feat? Healing a 1,385yearold schism between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, which has fueled bloody conflicts across the globe for centuries.
These front-page headlines and stories were printed on Saturday, April 9, 2016 by the Boston Globe in a post-dated satirical April 9, 2017 issue. It depicts Donald Trump’s America and …
“what might happen if the GOP frontrunner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action … what America looks like with Trump in the White House.”
“It is easy to find historical antecedents,” wrote the Globe editorial board in an opinion piece. “The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet. And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leader’s vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion.”
“The toxic mix of violent intimidation, hostility to criticism, and explicit scapegoating of minorities shows a political movement is taking hold in America,” the editors write. “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 GOP must stop Trump. “Donald J. Trump’s vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American.”
Fascism is rising in Europe and it is rising in America in the names of Donald Trump.and Ted Cruz. War with the world is probable under Wall Street patron and uber war-hawk Hillary Clinton.
From sleeper cells of militants, sovereign citizens, confederates, gun rights activists, anarcho-capitalists, truthers, 2nd Amen constitutionalists and far-right Rand Paul libertarians are joined Ted Cruz theocratic religionists mounting a historic challenge to American democratic institutions, civil rights, human rights, secularism, press freedom, the environment – indeed to the very Constitution and Bill of Rights they proclaim are abridged by everyone but themselves.
Americans are being duly forewarned. The choice will be theirs in November, but with it comes their responsibility for any and all future outcomes — for better or worse.
Notes
[1] “The GOP must stop Trump”. Editorial Board. Boston Globe. April 9, 2016.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/04/09/etrump/JPOQJZK9hUBdBx5rdPkWFK/story.html
[2] “PDF: A front page in Trump’s America”. Boston Globe. April 9, 2016.
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2797782/Ideas-Trump-front-page.pdf
Michael T. Bucci is a retired public relations executive currently living in New England. He has authored nine books on practical spirituality collectively titled The Cerithous Material
