Politics

New York Daily News Cover Boldly Calls Out South Carolina

February 21st 2016

Fresh off his win in South Carolina, presidential candidate Donald Trump has made the cover of the New York Daily News again — and they don't mince words about those who voted for him. The publication labels Trump's supporters a "Confederacy of Dunces," blasting them for supporting a candidate who recently praised torture against Muslim enemies in a strange speech the night before the state's primary. 

The cover also features this statement, which boldly calls out the Palmetto State: "Days after Trump lauds shooting Muslims, South Carolina GOP, says, 'He's our guy!'"

Here's the cover in full:

The not-so-subtle message is a reference to Trump's gruesome tale at a North Charleston, South Carolina, campaign rally Friday night, where the New York businessman now famously told the assembly about a terrorist attack in the Philippines and U.S. General John J. Pershing's unusual methods to quell terrorism. The story has been circulating on the internet for some time, and is in all likelihood false, but that apparently didn't stop The Donald from relaying it as fact in order to bolster his support for waterboarding and other torture tactics. 

As the Washington Post reports, Trump called Pershing "a 'rough guy' who was fighting terrorism in the early 1900s." (The story usually situates the incident during the Philippine-American War.) Rather than letting the terrorists get the best of him, however, Pershing fought back. In Trump's own words: 

"They were having terrorism problems, just like we do. And he caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood — you heard that, right? He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pigs’ blood. And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem." 

While most of the establishment in the Republican party has expected Trump to flame out, it's now looking unlikely to happen. As baffling to many GOP operatives as it is that residents of the Palmetto State voted for Trump after this frightening tall tale, he's also made fun of disabled people while on the campaign trail and suggested that we should boycott Apple even though roughly half of America uses Apple smart phones. Seemingly, the more outrageous Trump makes his candidacy, the better he does. 

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