The New York Daily News is pulling out the big guns once again with another controversial cover — and this time the target is Donald Trump.
The front page of Wednesday’s paper features a cartoon depicting the GOP presidential frontrunner beheading the Statue of Liberty with a machete in the wake of his recent disturbing statements about Muslims.
“When Trump came for the Mexicans, I did not speak out as I was not a Mexican. When Trump came for the Muslims, I did not speak out as I was not a Muslim. Then he came for me …” reads the cover’s hard-hitting caption.
The text is adapted from the poem “First They Came,” written by Pastor Martin Niemöller in around 1946, but his iconic words were about the Nazis.
The former prisoner of war wrote a number of essays and speeches about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets. In his writings, he criticizes the Germans who turned a blind eye to the tactics used during the rise of Hitler as he took over as the country and invaded Europe.
The Daily News’ cover, however, is in response to Trump stirring up controversy earlier this week by calling for a “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country. A statement posted to his campaign website on Monday cited “great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.”
In the accompanying online article on NYDailyNews.com, guest columnist Max Paul Friedman further compares Trump to the Nazis, writing: “There are discomfiting echoes in the increasing tempo of Trump’s invective against Muslims, his insults toward Hispanics and a disabled reporter, and his encouragement of his fans to rough up an African-American heckler — not to mention his strained relationship to the truth.”
Friedman went on to detail a timeline of atrocities and restrictions carried out by the Nazis against the Jews leading up to the Holocaust.
“Trump has not proposed any of these restrictions, although he did seem to support registration and a database for all Muslims or all refugees,” Friedman, a historian specializing in 20th-century U.S. foreign relations, wrote. “However, by saying on Monday that all Muslims overseas, even U.S. citizens who are abroad for business or pleasure, will be refused re-entry to the United States, he would effectively deny them their citizenship rights. Like Jews in Germany, they would be rendered stateless.”
Needless to say, after their shocking cover about the San Bernardino shooting last week and Monday’s “Everything is Awesome!” NRA front page, the Daily News captured the attention of readers once again before it even hit newsstands, with many voicing their praise on Twitter.
Another provocative front page: Now, the @NYDailyNews depicts Trump cutting off the Statue of Liberty's head pic.twitter.com/e3ckNMtVFr
— Marcus Baram (@mbaram) December 9, 2015
https://twitter.com/erinruberry/status/674407678052073472