DISCLAIMER: This article was first published in February 2025
Donald Trump almost certainly doesn’t appreciate the implication that Elon Musk, and not him, is the president of the United States. And knowing how important he considers magazine covers, especially that of Time Magazine — fake covers he has displayed at his properties — he’s probably not going to like this week’s Time cover.
The cover, with the headline “Inside Elon Musk’s war on Washington,” depicts Musk seated at the Resolute desk as the president.
TIME’s new cover: Inside Elon Musk’s war on Washington https://t.co/95Qictx4zP pic.twitter.com/QZ73CZqtnM
— TIME (@TIME) February 7, 2025
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The Time article, bylined by Simon Shuster and Brian Bennett, begins by describing the “standoff” at the USAID office.
“No single private citizen, certainly not one whose wealth and web of businesses are directly subject to the oversight of federal authorities, has wielded such power over the machinery of the U.S. government,” the article says. “So far, Musk appears accountable to no one but President Trump, who handed his campaign benefactor a sweeping mandate to bring the government in line with his agenda.”
Time adds that “DOGE directed all of TIME’s questions about its work to the White House, which declined to comment.”
This is not the first magazine cover implying that Musk is the president. The New Yorker did a similar cover the week of the inauguration, with Musk and Trump standing side by side taking the oath of office, but with Musk shown in full and Trump off to the side:
From Axio
Here’s an early look at next week’s cover of The New Yorker, “Two’s a Crowd,” by Barry Blitt, who imagines a swearing-in scene with Elon Musk sidelining President-elect Trump into a dash of yellow hair and a sliver of red tie.
] pic.twitter.com/L7klnzJf2a— H. Walter Muchow (@hwm777) January 10, 2025
Time’s reporting also points out a potential emerging backlash to what Musk is doing with DOGE.
“Soon Americans are going to learn where they interact with the federal government in ways they didn’t realize or took for granted,” the magazine says. “Companies that export tech products to China may no longer have State or Commerce Department employees available to explain, for free, how to avoid violating criminal law. Farmers in the Midwest may soon find USAID-funded buyers no longer paying for sacks of flour to send to refugee camps.”
The courts could also declare some of DOGE’s actions illegal or unconstitutional.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
