One of the leading German news magazines, Der Spiegel, posted a shocking cover for this week’s issue:
Der neue SPIEGEL. Ab jetzt zum Download und ab morgen im Laden erhältlich: https://t.co/qv6ihBqCQm pic.twitter.com/xtfI9YL2yW
— SPIEGEL ONLINE (@spiegelonline) February 3, 2017
The artist, Edel Rodriguez, a Cuban immigrant to the U.S., showed a disconnect from reality that explains how his mind conjured up such revolting imagery.
“I was 9 years old when I came here, so I remember it well, and I remember the feelings and how little kids feel when they are leaving their country,” Rodriguez said. “I remember all that, and so it bothers me a lot that little children are being kept from coming to this country.”
Unlike most immigrants, however, Rodriguez channeled his anger into a piece of art that is now on the cover of one of the world’s leading magazines.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel on Friday unveiled its latest issue, bearing Rodriguez’s striking work. In the illustration, Trump wields a bloody knife with which he has beheaded the Statue of Liberty. His orange face is featureless, except for a hollering mouth. Two words appear beside him: America First.
“It’s a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol,” Rodriguez said, noting that the Statue of Liberty represents the United States’ history of welcoming immigrants. “And clearly, lately, what’s associated with beheadings is ISIS, so there’s a comparison” between the Islamic State and Trump. “Both sides are extremists, so I’m just making a comparison between them.”
The problem for Mr. Rodriguez is that there is a slight difference between Trump and ISIS that he fails to pick up on: ISIS regularly and savagely actually beheads people. Trump has yet to decapitate anyone. But in service to Mr. Rodriguez’s own brand of extremism, such details are superfluous.
Also enamored with disfiguring the Statue of Liberty is The New Yorker, whose own cover carries the concept of anti-Trump hysteria to ridiculous heights:
Also, you won’t find any reports or analysis of the Kuwaiti visa ban on five Muslim countries that’s been in effect since 2011. Nor has there been much, if any, reporting on the applauding done by Sunni Gulf states for Trump’s policies.
Somehow, that kind of information never quite makes it past the media gatekeepers who wish to keep the anti-Trump hysteria at the highest level possible.
One can disagree with Trump’s visa ban without bringing the Statue of Liberty into the picture which, after all, is a symbol for permanent immigrants coming to the U.S. to make a new life, not visa holders. I guess cutting off the head of an immigration bureaucrat and holding it up with a bloody knife just doesn’t cut it with this crowd.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member