The Economist Magazine cover for 07/20/2024

The Economist Read in browser JULY 20TH 2024 How we chose this week’s image SUBSCRIBER ONLY Cover Story How we chose this week’s image Insert a clear and simple description of the image Zanny Minton Beddoes Editor-in-chief When the news comes fast, cover designers must be nimble. This week began with awful news: that a gunman had tried to veto the democratic choices of millions of Americans by assassinating Donald Trump. Fortunately, the shooter failed and Mr Trump suffered only a minor wound, though a bystander was killed and others were badly injured. Our early cover ideas stressed how close America came to having a presidential election upended. On the left we have a bullet, stark and simple, painted with stars and stripes. On the right we have a more subtle image: Old Glory, with a bullet hole just nicking the edge of its uppermost stripe and blood trickling down, as if from Mr Trump’s lacerated ear. Neither image, however, captured the effect the shooting has had on Mr Trump’s supporters. Many are convinced that he survived thanks to divine intervention. Nearly all are rallying around a leader they believe has been persecuted: by the media, by liberal prosecutors and now by what Senator Tim Scott called “the devil…with a rifle”. The shooter’s motives are unknown, and he was killed at the scene by the Secret Service. But many Republicans are sure he must have been inspired by the terrifying things Democrats have said about their hero. So how about an elephant waving a placard? This one depicts Mr Trump in his iconic pose after being shot, picking himself up, raising a defiant fist and growling “fight, fight, fight!” It’s a lively image, but verges too closely on the comical. So how about turning the end of an elephant’s trunk into a fist? This one is more stylish. This final elephant has ears like wings, as if the Republican Party is about to take flight. And it is gold, a favourite Trump colour. Striking, but not quite right. A different approach, noting how Mr Trump utterly dominates the Republican Party and is shaping it as he pleases, homes in on his raised fist, this time squeezing a hand-exercise ball. On Monday night Mr Trump announced that J.D. Vance would be his running-mate and we changed our plans. The cover could not just be about Mr Trump. It had to signal that Mr Vance is a bold and—to liberals—alarming pick. He is young, clever and has an inspiring back story, rising from an addiction-scarred Appalachian family to Yale and the Senate. He once dismissed Mr Trump as “cultural heroin”, a brief thrill that does not solve people’s problems. But now he is a fan, promoting a similar mix of anti-immigration, anti-trade and anti-globalist policies, but more articulately. We tried a drawing of the two men, stressing the fist again but adding the newly proclaimed heir apparent in the background. This was eye-catching, but not everyone is familiar with Mr Vance’s face, so we tried a photo, emphasising Mr Trump’s bandaged ear. This looked a bit too intimate. So we settled on a picture taken in profile. Mr Trump is in the background. He may be the more important figure, but Mr Vance is the new one, and we want to signal that we will try to help readers make sense of him. He is half Mr Trump’s age, could one day succeed him and his anointment suggests that MAGA is evolving from one man’s political vehicle into a movement that could last a long time. We used different headlines for our American and non-American editions; not all foreigners are fluent in American political jargon. The result was a vivid snapshot of a fast-moving campaign. By the time you read this, some fresh drama may well have occurred. As I write this, calls for Joe Biden to drop out of the race are intensifying. For our readers in Asia, we had a cover about the markets. They are close to an all-time high in America, the euro zone and Japan, and many emerging-economy stocks are booming, too. Fears of recessions have so far proven wrong, yet inflation has tumbled; investors are breathlessly optimistic. However, we think they are paying too little heed to politics. If Mr Trump wins another term, America could raise towering trade barriers and Europe could lose its NATO security umbrella. Populists around the world are pushing against economic liberalism and even central-bank independence. Investors ignore such forces at their peril. One cover idea was to do a collage of geopolitical worries, from Israel and Iran to war and destitution. Amid the mayhem, a stylised line on a graph keeps rising. It’s good, but a trifle cluttered. Better to use a simpler image, of a bull that’s not looking carefully at its surroundings. Here’s one with blinkers: he can see the good economic news straight ahead, but not the warning signs of geopolitical turmoil on either side. This was precisely the idea wanted to convey, but a visual metaphor doesn’t have to be pedantically precise. We opted for the more dramatic image of a completely blindfolded bull. The first one looked too weedy, so we pumped up its muscles. He looks powerful, but headed for trouble. Cover image • View large image (“Where would they take America?”) • View large image (“When markets ignore politics”) Backing stories → Where would Donald Trump and J.D. Vance take America? (Leader) → Why MAGA is the future, not just present, of the GOP (United States) → Euphoric markets are ignoring growing political risks (Leader) → Stocks are on an astonishing run. Yet threats lurk (Finance and economics)