Striking magazine covers criticize Trump's Charlottesville response
On the cover of the latest issue of the Economist, the president of the United States is using a KKK hood as a megaphone, while the New Yorker’s Aug. 28 cover shows a Klan hood giving wind to his sails.
An early look at next week's cover, "Blowhard," by David Plunkert: https://t.co/VuBXtwJCUQ pic.twitter.com/zsDHVOBBQO
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 17, 2017
The striking illustrations come after President Trump repeatedly blamed “both sides” for the violence during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a counterprotester was slain in a vehicle attack.
Donald Trump is politically inept, morally barren and temperamentally unfit for office https://t.co/xLDMtLclUw
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 17, 2017
The Economist’s accompanying article — “Donald Trump has no grasp of what it means to be president” — slams the commander in chief for his “unsteady” response in the days following the violent clashes in Charlottesville. Trump is “politically inept, morally barren and temperamentally unfit for office,” the article said.
The New Yorker’s illustration, titled “Blowhard,” was inspired by the president’s “weak pushback to hate groups,” illustrator David Plunkert explained to the magazine.
The latest issue of Time magazine also has a provocative cover, featuring an illustration of a man issuing a Nazi salute while wearing an American flag. “Hate in America,” the cover proclaims.
TIME’s new cover: Behind the hate in America https://t.co/Rxq9hsPWC1 pic.twitter.com/ARE67Xbrnw
— TIME (@TIME) August 17, 2017
“These people are hiding behind the flag and the idea of patriotism it connotes,” Edel Rodriguez, who created the Time cover, told Time. “They have tried to change the language from ‘White Supremacist’ to ‘White Nationalist,’ to further hide behind the flag, and the idea of patriotism. But they are espousing the same views as always.”
Rodriguez added: “They are taking advantage of what the flag guarantees them — freedom of speech — to further an agenda of hatred.”
In his first remarks about Charlottesville last Saturday, Trump’s failure to explicitly condemn the neo-Nazis and white supremacists involved in the violent events drew sharp criticism from across the political spectrum. On Monday, Trump denounced racism as “evil,” but returned to his initial comments a day later, blaming “both sides” for the violence at a heated Tuesday press conference.
Read more from Yahoo News:
At service for Charlottesville victim Heather Heyer, a call for ‘righteous action’
After Charlottesville, both Bush presidents denounce ‘hatred in all forms’
U.S. cuts grant for group that seeks to deradicalize neo-Nazis
‘One side is racist’: Romney, other Republicans rebuke Trump’s Charlottesville hedging
Photos: Confederate monuments removed in wake of Charlottesville violence