The New York Times published a fantasy about an assassination attempt on Trump

Almost every prominent voice across the country – including many former presidents Donald Trump’s The most ardent opponents of the attack unanimously condemned the assassination attempt on him over the weekend.

Shortly after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear and nearly cost him his life, The New York Times published an editorial with the headline “The attack on Donald Trump is a contradiction of America.”

“Any attempt to decide an election through violence is abhorrent. Violence is the opposite of democracy. Ballots, not bullets, should always be the means by which Americans settle their differences,” the Gray Lady editorial board said.

But the praiseworthy feelings of the Just‘ Leadership should be accompanied by self-reflection. Less than six years ago, the magazine touted a Trump assassination fantasy in its book reviews section.

The short story “How It Ends” was published along with several other fictional stories intended to “imagine Trump’s next chapter.”

The collection was presented by Just:

Our focus here at

The book review is about books and stories, but also how the books being written and read reflect the world outside of books. And one of the biggest stories out there is, of course, the Mueller investigation and the relationship between Trump and Putin. It’s hard not to speculate about what might happen next. To that end, we thought: who better to bring in than some of today’s most talented spy and crime writers – Joseph Finder, Laura Lippman, Jason Matthews, Zoe Sharp And Scott Turow — to conjure up possible outcomes?

Sharp, the author of “How It Ends,” imagined a world in which a Russian assassin showed up in Washington DC to kill Trump and cover up his country’s role in his inauguration as president. Here are the story’s closing paragraphs:

The Russian waited until they were a few steps past before drawing his weapon. He aimed at the center of the President’s back and pulled the trigger. The Makarov did not fire. The Secret Service agent at the President’s shoulder heard the click and crouched down. He took in the scene immediately and, with razor-sharp reflexes, drew his own weapon. The Russian felt himself failing. He closed his eyes and waited to pay the price. It did not come. He opened his eyes. The Secret Service agent stood before him, holding out his Glock, grip first. “Here,” the agent said politely. “Use mine. …”

The message behind the prose is not difficult to understand

recognize: Donald Trump deserves to die, and any patriotic American of sound mind would work toward that goal.

Being disgusted by Sharp’s message and the Just‘ It is not an expression of retrospective outrage to promote this action. It was a disgusting, even barbaric act at the time and reflects the decay of American political culture as much as Trump’s worst rhetoric.

If that Just‘ The complaint about this humiliation is sincere, it should begin with the beam in one’s own eye.