politics

'The Trumps are not celebrities. They are far more dangerous than that.'

Splashy and a bit trashy, the Trumps have landed back on the cover of People magazine, this time in a mode more suited to juicy details of the latest celebrity divorce.

trump people cover
Image via People magazine.

"THE TRUMP FAMILY SECRETS & LIES" screams the cover and while there really isn't much of either, the inside story of life in the First Family is presented as breathlessly as possible:

  • Donald Trump Jr. is "miserable" and "can't wait for these four years to be over."
  • The three eldest children—Junior, Ivanka and Eric—live by "their father's creed of winning at all costs and never admitting mistakes."
  • Ivanka has always been (and at this rate, always will be) Dad's favourite.
  • Dad doesn’t like failure or mistakes. "He doesn't accept them," says a source. "You have to justify your existence to be in his realm."

Good stuff, for sure—but could it also be a turning point?

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Could this be just the type of coverage that will finally break through to the millions of American who still don't care about the Trump Administration's dealings with Russian contacts during the presidential campaign last year?

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As one of America's largest magazines, People not only guarantees a readership of more than 41 million people every week but also can be found in nearly every newsstand and check-out aisle nationwide.

That's why choosing the cover story of such a massive print publication is not done lightly.

As Vox notes: "If People's editors didn't think readers would be interested in this story, they wouldn't have broken with their typical fawning coverage of The Trumps and pushed other go-to topics like the British royal family and Kardashian-related drama to the margins (literally)."

So true.

Putting the Trumps on the cover is not a decision the magazine made lightly. Image via Getty.
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Here's hoping that People's cover will help push the story of a dysfunctional and dangerous White House far past the hand-wringing households of media elites who already knew much of what’s reported here.

Let's hope it at least plants a seed among 41 million readers that this "Russia thing" isn't just some distraction cooked up by the opposition—an opinion I heard first hand while traveling this month through America's Midwest.

But let us be clear, too, that the Trumps are not celebrities. They are far more dangerous and powerful than that.

donald trump sexist comments
The Trumps are far more dangerous and powerful than celebrities. Image via Getty.
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Junior's misery, shared here by sources undoubtedly friendly to him, comes not because it's no longer fun being First Son.

It comes because his dealings with Russian contacts during the presidential campaign—and his decision this month to share his emails regarding them—have brought the world's white hot spotlight to him.

("In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently," said Junior on Fox News' Hannity show, just hours after tweeting the email chain in question.)

In the meantime, his father's administration continues to work to roll back laws and protections that many of us in America take for granted, continues to disrespect women and continues to lash out at enemies left and right.

That's not gossip. That's news.