This is What’s Trending Today.
The Boston Globe is one of the most famous newspapers in the United States. On Sunday, The Globe made news when it published a special front page. The special page was dated one year in the future. It had a series of reports about what might happen if businessman Donald Trump is elected president.
The page was not the first page of the newspaper. It was the first page of a section called “Ideas,” home to commentary and criticism.
The newspaper published articles with names including, “Deportations to Begin,” “Markets Sink as Trade War Looms,” and “Bank Glitch Halts Border Wall Work.”
The articles were designed to get Americans thinking about what might happen if Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election. The stories were The Boston Globe’s predictions of what might happen a year from now during a Trump presidency.
The Globe is one of the most respected newspapers in the country. It was in the news for its investigative reporting in 2002 about the abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergymen.
The series won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, the top award for U.S. journalism. The story about the investigation was turned into the movie “Spotlight.” The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture earlier this year.
On Sunday, the newspaper’s editors explained in an opinion piece why they put together the special front page. They said the stories take Donald Trump at his word. They said the articles are predictions of what might happen if Trump acted on his campaign promises.
One story said the leading measure of U.S. stock prices would drop almost 7,000 points in only three weeks if Trump ordered taxes on imports from Mexico and China.
Another story lists all the ways his plan to expel over 11 million illegal immigrants would harm life in the United States. It said the deportation plan would cost $400 billion and require more than 900,000 immigration control agents.
Those were the big stories. There were smaller stories, too.
One story noted Trump’s comment last year about killing family members of fighters with the self-declared Islamic State group. It predicted that U.S. soldiers would question an order to kill the family members of terror suspects.
Thousands of people posted messages on The Globe’s Facebook page.
One person wrote, “Well, if the goal of this was to fuel the Trump fire of support... The Globe will have accomplished that!”
Another wrote: “Thank you to the editorial staff at The Boston Globe. Wake up, America.”
Donald Trump was unhappy with the newspaper’s creation.
“Did you see that story?” he asked. “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. And I think they’re having a big backlash on that one.”
And That’s What’s Trending Today
I’m Dan Friedell.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
What is your prediction for what the United States will be like if Donald Trump becomes president? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
glitch – n. an unexpected and usually minor problem
loom – v. to appear in a large, strange, or frightening form often in a sudden way
journalism – n. the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio
editor – n. a person whose job is to edit something
article – n. a piece of writing about a particular subject that is included in a magazine or newspaper
deport – v. to force (a person who is not a citizen) to leave a country
pretend – v. to act as if something is true when it is not true
backlash – n. a strong public reaction against something
section – n. a part of a newspaper, play or book
