Trump Backlashes Against Globe’s Satirical Front Page

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump called The Boston Globe “stupid” and “worthless” at a campaign event in Rochester, NY in response to a satirical front page the Globe published over the weekend. The front page, dated a year from now, featured headlines imagining what news under a Trump presidency would consist of. Its main story was about President Trump calling for more deportations while others mentioned work on a wall at the Mexican border being halted and backlash Trump received after tweeting a picture of his new dog, Madame Peng, named after China’s first lady.

“Did you see that story?” Trump asked the crowd in Rochester, “The whole front page– they made up a story, they pretended Trump is the president, and they made up the whole front page. It’s a make-believe story which is really no different from the whole paper– I mean, the whole thing is made up.”

The Globe says the Opinion staff, which is separate from the news staff, was responsible for executing the stunt. The satirical front page did not run on the actual front page, but instead ran in the Opinion section. The paper, in an accompanying editorial, called it an “exercise in taking a man at his word” and said Trump’s “vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page.”

The editorial went on to say that the “toxic mix of violent intimidation, hostility to criticism, and explicit scapegoating of minorities shows a political movement is taking hold in America. 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 ended by urging the GOP to reject both Trump and Cruz as their nominee, encouraging them to elect an “honorable and decent man” on the convention floor.