The Atlantic's press release: Oct. issue on Trump's antidemocratic actions & Republican politicians bending to his will

[highplainsdem]

And because it's a press release, it can be copied in its entirety:

https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2024/09/atlantic-october-issue-trumps-antidemocratic-actions/679752/?gift=gPSfy2YCBeqg4_Fa3SLS6CwJAfEwCOrO-SDUocPGMEw

The Atlantic’s October issue on Trump’s antidemocratic actions, and the Republican politicians who bent to his will
Reporting by Anne Applebaum, Tim Alberta, Elaina Plott Calabro, Mark Leibovich, Helen Lewis, Hanna Rosin, and Sarah Zhang

The cover illustration may be the first in The Atlantic’s 167-year history with no headline or typography.



For its October 2024 issue, The Atlantic looks to the presidential election with a package of stories––and a striking cover illustration––examining Donald Trump’s antidemocratic tendencies. Articles cover the Republican politicians who bent easily to Trump’s will, and the threats that a second Trump term poses, with reporting by Tim Alberta, Anne Applebaum, Mark Leibovich, Helen Lewis, Elaina Plott Calabro, Hanna Rosin, and Sarah Zhang. Stories are publishing this week and next; please reach out with any questions or requests to interview The Atlantic’s writers on their reporting.

On the cover: The illustrator Justin Metz borrowed the visual language of old Ray Bradbury and Stephen King paperbacks to portray a circus wagon on its ominous approach to a defiled Capitol. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury’s 1962 masterpiece, was a particular inspiration. We believe this to be the first cover bearing no headline or typography in The Atlantic’s 167-year history.

Leading the package, and online today, is Mark Leibovich’s “Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump.” Back in 2015, when Trump first sought the Republican Party’s nomination, he boasted to Leibovich that he would easily bend Republicans to his will. “They might speak badly about me now, but they won’t later,” Trump said. But politicians were weak, Trump said, unlike the “brutal, vicious killers” he dealt with in the business world—they were pathetic “puppets” who, Trump said, would submit to him. “It will be very easy,” Trump said.

To Leibovich and just about anyone who’d spent time around politics, this sounded like empty bombast. But Trump turned out to be right. He “rolled over” his Republican competitors, gleefully humiliating them along the way. When he secured the GOP nomination in 2016, party elders such as Mitch McConnell assured people that Republican institutions were strong enough to withstand Trump. “He’s not going to change the basic philosophy of the party,” McConnell said. In retrospect, this was hilarious.

Republican leaders know full well who Trump is; after all, most of them condemned him fulsomely. Yet today, even after he lost the presidency in 2020, Trump dominates the GOP and has remade it in his image. His family controls the party apparatus. Despite knowing better, Republican politicians––including many who once said that Trump would destroy the party––march in lockstep obeisance to him, kissing his ring and even imitating his sartorial style. “If Trump had a mustache,” Leibovich writes, “his acolytes would all grow and groom one just like his—as Baath party loyalists did for Saddam Hussein.”

The party’s prostration before Trump is total; the gap between what the GOP historically espoused and what it now allows itself to abide is huge. A once-serious party has been subdued, disoriented, and denuded of whatever its convictions once were. And all of this, Leibovich wonders, to what end

Already published: Elaina Plott Calabro’s profile of Kash Patel, “The Man Who Will Do Anything for Trump,” looks into Patel’s exceptional devotion to Trump during his presidency, and how Patel is the type of person Trump is likely to turn to in a second term.

The issue continues The Atlantic’s crucial reporting on the 2024 election, which includes the “If Trump Wins” cover package for the January/February 2024 issue. “If Trump Wins” featured essays by two dozen Atlantic writers on the consequences of a possible second Trump presidency, and was recently translated into Spanish.

Press Contacts:
Anna Bross and Paul Jackson | The Atlantic
[e-mail]

[FalloutShelter]

1. My problem with all of this... including this illustration is that

it plays tight into his stupid mythology. DJT is a psychopath. He will LOVE this cover. It gives him more power because it portrays him as the destroyer of our world and he LOVES that.
He feeds off of that.
The more appropriate cover would be.

Just TEXT alone: TRUMP IS A LOSER. in smaller print (Fuck ALL the way off)

[highplainsdem]

2. The problem with what you suggest, though, is that it downplays how much of a threat he is to

democracy and how much control he has over the Republican party. Which is what the issue is about.

[FalloutShelter]

3. I think we know what a threat he is.

We have to stop giving his psychosis more power by admitting we are terrified by his bullshit.

[slightlv]

14. I think some of that admitting is coming out

of the PTSD so many of us fight with regards to this madman. I won't say it's exactly cathartic, but I know for me, just getting it off my chest for a few minutes helps a little.

[Escape]

6. I fully agree with you

Trump loves being called a bully.
He will sell autographed copies of this cover. It makes him look powerful and sinister.

[tinrobot]

15. What bothers me is - who reads The Atlantic?

I would assume it's mostly college-educated people, most of those liberal.

Let's do a similar cover, but for People or The Enquirer.

[Wednesdays]

18. Trouble is, The Enquirer would never print it

Doubtful People would, too.

[scipan]

19. I disagree. It's not about Trump's reaction.

It's about exposing him for what he is. Voters need to know what kind of person he is and this seems to expose him.

Don't know if they accurately describe him as a psychopath or sociopath but that's what he is, and they are at the very least touching on that, and no one in their right mind would vote for that.

[UTUSN]

4. K&R for, O.K. although The Atlantic fine writing is who started the meme of

"not to take (Drumpf) *literally* "

[highplainsdem]

5. kick

[wryter2000]

7. It occurs to me

We should be grateful he didn’t decide to run as a Democrat in 2015.

[erronis]

13. Hadn't thought about that. Wonder if he would have been able to take over

the Democratic party as easily. Interesting.

[betsuni]

16. Why would Democrats vote for him?

[scipan]

20. His reason was that he couldn't take us over like he did the repubs.

He has said as much.

[WarGamer]

8. I'd like a print.

[JoetheShow]

9. I think the cover art is more a warning of who Trump is to make us fight harder.

Yes, tsf will love it as it depicts him as powerful, but it can also serve as a warning to any "undecided" voters. Personally, I believe any undecided people at this point have their head neck deep in the sand or a certain bodily orifice, but maybe...MAYBE... they will pull it out long enough to see the Atlantic and decide to do the right thing. And, yes, I do believe in rainbows and unicorns

[dalton99a]

10. From 2016:

[highplainsdem]

11. Mark Bryan's The Nightmare. His Facebook comments:

https://facebook.com/ArtofMarkBryan/posts/the-nightmare-i-painted-this-just-before-trump-was-inaugurated-in-2017-i-was-spe/2792303824146496/?wtsid=rdr_0EqHedwvCVYfvO6w0

[dalton99a]

17. +1

“The Nightmare” I painted this just before Trump was inaugurated in 2017. I was speculating on all the types of characters and corruption that we would probably see invited into the White House. Sadly it seems that my worst fears have come true. Also I want to apologize for using the octopus image. I know they are wonderful and intelligent creatures and should not be associated with low life human individuals. In my defense though their tentacles are an irresistible symbol that has been used throughout the history of editorial cartooning. Some people have asked me why there are only seven tentacles. I used to answer that there’s one hidden one that you don’t know what it’s doing. However, I just recently revised Trump’s ridiculously long tie to make it the eighth tentacle wrapping around Congress. He is a sad example of humanity’s worst qualities and really needs to go. If he is not removed then he must be voted out. #impeachtrump #senatetrial #trump #abuseofpower #corruption #politicalart #satire #mitchmcconnell #painting

[Mousetoescamper]

12. We're dealing with a dangerous cult. No hyperbole, as Joe is wont to say

Thanks for posting the press release along with Justin Metz's exactly correct cover illustration.

I haven't bought a copy of The Atlantic in years but will seek out and purchase next month's issue.

Something Wicked This Way Comes, indeed! 




The vampire circus is coming to town. It's up to us to stop it before it crosses the city line.