Trump's nuclear brinksmanship with Kim Jong Un did not go unnoticed on magazine, tabloid covers

(Image credit: The Economist)

published 9 August 2017

The current issue of The Economist, published last week, has an ominous cover warning about a nuclear conflict between the U.S. and North Korea. On Tuesday, after President Trump threatened North Korea with "fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before," and Pyongyang responded with a proposal to bomb Guam, The Economist released an animated version of its cover, highlighting the risk of nuclear armageddon and Twitter diplomacy.

The New York Daily News went with a mushroom cloud for its Wednesday cover, and the neutrally damning caption, "Some men just want to watch the world burn..."

Pictorial warnings about the threat of nuclear war from Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un aren't new, as shown in this April cover from Germany's Der Speigel:

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But the current cover of Newsweek, also animated, seems a little off-track after Tuesday's provocations.

Arguably, the U.S. and much of Asia would be sleeping better tonight if Trump had just golfed on Tuesday afternoon.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.