Der Spiegel is celebrating the return of Donald Trump by bringing back it’s own special flavor of German MAGA: Making Anti-Americanism Great Again
We knew an atrocity of a cover was on it’s way from our favorite publication as soon as the American election results were in…and drumroll…here it is:
Above: “The infernal duo: The sinister plans of Donald Trump and Elon Musk“
So a couple observations. We love that there are feet-on-the-table, blood, and symbols of Gordon Gekko-style capitalism (cash and Diet Coke). Even the almost complete sunset and the half-tipped-over US flag in the background are not-so-subtle metaphors for an America irrevocably in decline (according to Der Spiegel and most elitist Euro-Snob German media).
While these are all outstanding, tried-and-true anti-American stereotypes sure to appeal to Spiegel readers and sell more magazines – we at Davids Medienkritik are quite disappointed in the overall lack of effort and would grade this a C- at best.
We don’t have any guns, cowboy hats, fast food, obesity or images of blood-thirsty American soldiers. (There isn’t even a reference to the end of the world.)
After all – how hard would it have been to paint in a spilled McDonalds fry box with ketchup (not mayo) on the desk? That is a clear missed opportunity…to name an obvious example.
Just a reminder to Der Spiegel editors – you need to bring back that lovin-feeling from Trump’s first term and really fire up those anti-American engines. So to help, we put together the Trump First-Term Covers Collage to remind you of your great journalistic tradition:
Objective, unbiased captions above include:
- “The True Face of Donald Trump” (Trump shown wearing a KKK hood)
- “The End of the World”
- “Five Minutes to Trump”
- “Insanity”
- “The Fire Devil: An American President Sets His Country on Fire”
Our new collage provides first-hand evidence as to why Germans love America and Trump so much after years of sensible, sober, unbiased, enlightened, lucid and objective media coverage by Der Spiegel.
But wait – there’s more: Time to bring back an even bigger classic! This is how things really looked when Der Spiegel was at the top of its anti-American game. Our classic house remix from the Bush-era (for those of you missing the once-incessant Guantanamo, cowboy, oil and gun references…):
And let’s not forget this oldie-but-goody that brilliantly combines the gun violence trope with America’s founding father:
Now that’s the Der Spiegel we know and cherish!
And word-up to award-winning Spiegel journalists Claas Relotius and Mark Pitzke – historically Spiegel’s two greatest “Amerika Experten.” They know how to keep it spicy and ensure Der Spiegel goes all-out MAGA: Germany-style.
Don’t you just love Germany’s obviously superior brand of journalism?
UPDATE: We haven’t even started to cover Stern’s Trump-era cover beauties…there are more treasures of objective German journalism yet to uncover…
