J.K. Rowling Says Donald Trump Is Worse Than Voldemort

Donald’s Trump’s bigoted fearmongering hit a new low yesterday, when the GOP presidential candidate proposed banning Muslims from entering the country. Twitter and Facebook have been sharing their response: Trump is worse than Voldemort. In a statement released by his campaign yesterday, Trump called for America to close its borders to all Muslims. “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” the statement read in part. While Trump’s xenophobia is hardly a secret, this the furthest he’s ever taken his isolationist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim stances.

If you had any doubts about the similarities, the ultimate authority weighed in. No, not Dumbledore. Someone even more powerful.

While it may ease collective horror at Trump's policies to compare him to the noseless, hairless Dark Lord of the wizarding world, relegating him to a laugh-it-off moment ignores the fact that he has a platform and followers who take the things he says seriously. Like Dementors, demagogues can do enormous harm with small numbers. And though the 2016 election season so far has been bizarre enough to qualify as a soap opera, it’s necessary to remember that as wild as things may get, politics are not merely entertainment. But the comparison does have one salient point: Like Voldemort, Trump gets power from people talking about him. So maybe if everyone takes a deep breath and refuses to give He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named any more publicity, he’ll finally fade away? That would be truly magical.