Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

The Boston Globe published a fake front page imagining America under President Trump

“Deportations to begin.”

Ty Wright / Getty Images

The editorial board of The Boston Globe doesn’t want you to vote for Donald Trump on Nov. 8, and it has implored the Republican Party to stop his candidacy before you get the chance.

So as a way of generating some additional buzz for its Sunday editorial, entitled “The GOP Must Stop Trump,” the newspaper created a fake front page envisioning a dystopian future that an early Trump U.S. presidency might look like.

“It is an exercise in taking a man at his word,” The Globe writes. “And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page.”

Trump Fake Front Page Boston Globe

You can see the result of The Globe’s imaginary front page, but here are the highlights with some added context:

Trump calls for a tripling of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose job it would be to deport more than 11 million illegal immigrants. The lead fake news story has Trump calling on Congress to approve $400 billion in funding to pay for it. (Though as our colleagues at Vox have observed, it would probably cost more than that.)

The second item concerns a huge drop in the Dow Jones Industrial average to below 10,000. The reason given is speculation that China is starting to sell its U.S. government debt paper following plans by a Trump administration to impose tariffs of as much as 45 percent on goods imported from China. That idea first surfaced in an interview with the editorial board of the New York Times, though in fairness he’s backpedaled from that figure since then. His tariff proposal would affect numerous electronic products, including Apple’s iPhone, that are assembled in China and shipped to the U.S.

The rest of the items are mostly humorous, though in a serious way. A banking glitch has interfered with the sketchy funding arrangements Trump has in place to build his “Big Beautiful Wall.” We know, thanks to John Oliver’s hilarious yet factual takedown what a ridiculous joke Trump’s proposed wall actually is. NASA has halted the launch of a space probe over worries that its “gold leaf trim” will interfere with communications. And somehow Trump is in improbably in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize. One wonders where that idea came from.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh