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| In this photo from Stephen Crowley of The New York Times, President Trump doesn't look too happy after he received a gold medal from a Saudi Arabian official on Saturday. Trump had to bow so the official could put the chain around his neck. First lady Melania Trump, left, and daughter Ivanka Trump went without head scarves. |
-- HACKENSACK, N.J.
Editor's note: This post has been updated with a photo of President Trump touching a glowing orb in Saudi Arabia -- an image that has become an Internet meme or sensation.
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
President Trump has tried twice to ban Muslims from traveling to the United States, arguing that is the only way to keep terrorists out.
During the 2016 campaign, he claimed thousands of Arab residents of New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks on America, and he also said "Islam hates us."
And don't forget how the New York billionaire belittled the parents of a slain Muslim soldier after the father denounced Trump.
Yet, in a major speech to leaders of Saudi Arabia and about 50 other Muslim countries today, Trump sounded as if he was heavily sedated as he made nice with the Islamic world.
He never used the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism," which he repeated during the divisive 2016 presidential campaign and attacked his opponent for refusing to use it.
Today's speech was greeted with polite applause, but the Saudis didn't indicate they are ready for the first time to commit military forces to fight ISIS.
I listened to Trump's uncharacteristic monotone in Saudi Arabia on WNYC-FM, New York and New Jersey public radio.
A disgrace
Trump is such a hypocrite and liar. And he is a disgrace to the office of president.
The illegitimate president, who is the laughing stock of most of the country and the rest of the world, is going to Israel next to undoubtedly destroy any hope Palestinians have of establishing their own state.
Many Jews in Bergen County and other parts of New Jersey share with the evil Trump the belief that Barack Obama is a Muslim, but you won't get any of them to admit that's the reason they voted for the madman.
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| In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, President Trump, right, the Saudi king and Egypt's president placed their hands on an illuminated world globe at the opening of an anti-terrorism monitoring center called the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (photo from the Saudi Press Agency). Trump, who was described as "exhausted," then left for Israel. |
The Record
Today's front page is dominated by another medical-miracle story from Staff Writer Lindy Washburn, one of the few veterans who survived a major layoff of editors and reporters at the end of March (1A).
The Record prefers to publish this kind of gee-whiz medical story occasionally instead of covering the obesity epidemic or heart disease -- the No. 1 killer in the United States.
Also on the front page today, Columnist Mike Kelly visits Allendale, the Bergen County town where fired FBI Director James Comey grew up (1A).
Kelly begins the column with one of the brain teasers he prefers to straight reporting:
"Hometowns speak to us in strange ways."
The only legitimate story on Page 1 today is about Trump's crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado reports the head of immigration enforcement in New Jersey says his officers "are focusing on those who have committed serious crimes or have deportation orders against them."
Facebook critics
On the Facebook page of NorthJersey.com, all of the reader "reviews" discuss the decline of the newspaper, not the ascendancy of the website:
In an April 7 comment, Robert Kroncke of Hasbrouck Heights could have been referring to today's front page when he wrote:
"Important current events and the front page has an article about TICKS and LIME!!! You can't make this ____ UP."
That April 7 comment is the most recent, so Editor Richard Green must be shit-canning most of the critiques of the Woodland Park daily, whose decline has accelerated since Gannett took over.
Trump coverage
Green led Saturday's paper with a New York Times report on Comey agreeing to testify in public before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
That followed revelations that Trump told Russian leaders in the Oval Office Comey is a "nut job," and that dismissing him meant the pressure of the FBI's Russia probe has been "taken off," The Times said.
Today, Green relegates to Page 2A Trump's attempt to reverse two weeks of bad news over the Comey firing by leaving the country for nine days.
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| Food Editor Esther Davidowtiz. |
Giving orders
On Saturday's Better Living cover, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz reports on North Jersey coffee shops under another headline that seems to "order" readers to follow her advice:
"MUST-STOP COFFEE SHOPS"
In Better Living today, the First Course feature reads like advertising:
One item Davidowitz and Staff Writer Sofia F. Gottfried are pushing are the prawns served for $32 each at Oceanaire Seafood Room, an expensive seafood restaurant in Hackensack.
"Heck, each weighs almost 8 ounces," they shout.
Except, if you remove the inedible head, they weigh a couple of ounces less.
