"Believe Him" : Chilling NYT Cover Goes Viral After Trump Confirms Its Worst Fears

[Eugene]

Source: The Daily Beast

Chilling NYT Cover Goes Viral After Trump Confirms Its Worst Fears

Josh Fiallo
Thu, October 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM EDT
2 min read

A prophetic cover from The New York Times’ opinion section has gone viral on the anniversary of its original publication.

The year-old page came from a Sunday edition published in October 2024—a week-and-a-half before President Donald Trump won his return to the White House. In all caps, it warned what a second, clearly darker, Trump presidency would entail.

“DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE WILL PROSECUTE HIS ENEMIES, ORDER MASS DEPORTATIONS, USE SOLDIERS AGAINST CITIZENS, PLAY POLITICS WITH DISASTERS, ABANDON ALLIES,” it read in dramatic ALL CAPS text. “BELIEVE HIM.”

The cover was reshared on Wednesday by Victor Shi, a spokesperson and “new media” director for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. His post racked up tens of thousands of likes.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/chilling-nyt-cover-goes-viral-214330000.html

Link to tweet

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We should have believed it. Why didn't we?

[mercuryblues]

2. We did

But people who wanted "cheaper eggs" voted for him anyway.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. That's got to be the reason.

[Volaris]

6. Well, you have to understand, those voters are only interested in buying

WHITE eggs.

[littlemissmartypants]

39. DUzy!!🏆🏅

[erronis]

11. I hope you forgot that sarcasm thingee, CP

Those racist, RW idiots didn't care any more about the price of eggs than the Germans attacking the Jews in Germany. It's xenophobia and tribalism.

[Katinfl]

23. That plus the fact they could not vote for a woman.

Let alone a woman of color.

[yardwork]

32. It's not the reason.

The same people who complained about prices under Biden now insist that prices are down.

[travelingthrulife]

47. Exactly. My MAGA sister said Joe Biden had to go because she needs a new car

and can't afford one. I have heard nothing about this since....

[irisblue]

9. And too many yt women & men & hispanic men were afraid of the very smart black lady

The clowns in Dearborn-Metro Detroit didn't help.

[a kennedy]

3. We DID!!!!! the MAGA crowd didn't.

[caraher]

16. Or worse

They did believe it and voted for it, on purpose.

[Callie1979]

40. "This is what I voted for!!" I see it all the time. Idiots

Because so far it doesnt affect THEM.
But MAGA doesnt win elections; they're about 30% of the GOP vote
Independents win elections. And we need to understand why NOW & quit coming up with other excuses.

[PatSeg]

14. I think pretty much everyone here DID believe it

No surprises for us, except for how quickly it has all unfolded.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

45. What's surprising is the number of people who are accepting this.

And every Republican in Congress. Also the RW news networks who are going right along with it. They really are scum. He is basically mentally ill with Dementia on top of it.

[PatSeg]

46. It is really surreal, isn't it?

I can almost understand some poorly educated, low IQ people going along with all this crap, but when we see highly educated people accepting such a nightmare, it is beyond comprehension. There certainly are some major flaws with our species.

[Martin68]

17. We did. We warned everyone we could. They didn't believe it.

[AllyCat]

18. We did. The NYT propped him up.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

44. Great point. They print that opinion piece

--warning about the travesty that reasonable, attentive people already knew would unfold if the Insurrectionist in Chief were given such power again--but everywhere else print pieces pretending hes just a regular R prep. Those NYT fuckers are complicate & duplicitous.

[MaineBlueBear]

25. They were programmed not to

Fox, newsmax, oan explicitly.

Abc, CBS, mbc, CNN both sides bs.

And please don't cite specific programs. They're produced by networks that are only as liberal as their corporate owners allow them to be.

There is no liberal media on TV. Turn it off and walk away.

[Rebl2]

34. I

Believe it. Republicans did not.

[Just Jerome]

5. Juxtapose the stark

drama of that cover with all of the sane washing and other hijinks of NYT and do that math.

Yeah……

[Grins]

7. I'm from NY/NJ. Told friends that WE know who Trump really is.

Three years later I was telling them - “Next time we tell what a rat bastard Trump is - “BELIEVE US!”

They still didn’t.

[Totally Tunsie]

21. Similar: I was born and raised in CT. We knew what he was really like too and tried to warn.

Both he and his father should have been in jail in the 1970s, but, just as now, they were able to buy off all their judgments and walk away. No one would listen, let alone believe he was so evil. They knew him only as the phenomenal millionaire that Mark Burnett scripted for him on The Apprentice. Burnett owes the world an apology written in his own blood.

[róisín_dubh]

22. Exactly. I grew up in NJ in the '80s

He’s always been a con artist scumbag

[travelingthrulife]

48. If only New York and these other cities/states had upheld the law we would not

be in this position. He would have done jail time for all his fraud and money laundering.

[spanone]

8. Well, Comer said it was okay because he's doing it out in the open.

just listen to the first few minutes to hear Comer's astounding answer on trmps corruption

[Just Jerome]

12. Yeah,

comer Simpson

Shucksdangdarngolly

[Callie1979]

41. "Comer Simpson" hahahahahahahahahaha oh lord.

[travelingthrulife]

49. Comer Simpson...good one! I feel bad calling him a 'dumb farmer' given I

came from farmer world.

[mountain grammy]

10. Amazing isn't it?

I’m so disappointed in America. I honestly believed we were progressing, however slowly.

[3catwoman3]

29. I truly thought the election of President Obama showed...

…that our country was growing up, so to speak, and I was so excited. Then all the racist haters slithered out from under their rocks and shower me how wrong I was.

Nay, not slithered, they came rushing out, and their numbers were horrifyingly large. Many, many more than I had realized.

[mountain grammy]

31. Fox news was relentless in their lies..marinating in hatred

It was shocking to me.. I'm not naive, I lived in the openly segregated south in the 50's and the more subdued segregated rest of America from California to Connecticut. but, when Obama won, in an actual landslide, I finally had hope for the future.. well so did racists and they won.

[sop]

13. MAGA wanted to prosecute "radical socialist Democrats," deport millions of "illegal immigrants," sic the military

on the "hated liberals," deny healthcare and education to undeserving non-whites, and support Russia instead of NATO and other traditional alliances. They believed him, and voted for the things Trump promised them.

[KS Toronado]

15. Here's where you can read their reasons for their insights.

Long article and worth the read........

https://medium.com/@richardjohnson_38321/the-new-york-times-warned-you-about-trump-a046262f1ad8

[thought crime]

19. I guess they weren't joking...

And there was a great deal of criticism of "apocalyptic" rhetoric from Democrats and mainstream or progressive media, but it seems to have been spot on. And here we are, baking in Hell.

[BWdem4life]

20. "Trump has indeed skirted presidential norms in his second term."

[NH Ethylene]

30. Those words are certainly well minced.

They should have written 'flaunted' or 'trampled on' or 'defied.'

[travelingthrulife]

50. Or "shit on", "defecate on"...

[llmart]

36. This is why I always say language matters more than we think.

Our print media is owned by the same people as television media. They all tiptoe around parsing their articles so they don't look "too biased". In the meantime the general populace doesn't get told how dire the circumstances are and who is mostly responsible.

[Mz Pip]

24. This what MAGA voted for

snd why he is still at 37%. A third of the country is just fine with all of this.

[riversedge]

26. Even for those who only read the news headlines, we were warned over and over.........

and yet, here we are!!

[Doodley]

27. Trump is delivering on his promises. For his third term he will promise to destroy all opposition.

[ReRe]

28. Yep.

The man has been a one-man wrecking ball since he was child. Thusly, every issue (or non-issue) he touches as President ends up a total failure for our nation, at home and abroad, as well. It proves one thing: A country is NOT a corporation.

[PCIntern]

33. But but but...

Al Gore was boring and they didn’t like his choice of suits which he was wearing!!!

I’ll bet they don’t reprint that editorial.

[dalton99a]

35. Yep. And much more to come

[CoopersDad]

37. To Magats, these are all "good things" and why they continue to support him

[Magoo48]

38. Only if we allow it. Unfortunately, the majority are inclined to allow it.

[calimary]

42. Which is why we have to stay strong in our opposition.

Sometimes that becomes attractive to people. Especially if they've had to weather some trump storms they weren't expecting (and that he said NOTHING to warn them about).

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

43. yes indeed