‘Going to HATE the new cover’: Trump’s reaction to ‘TIME’ Magazine’s upcoming cover is exactly what the internet expected it to be
Since President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk has been in the news—a lot. Perhaps too much, as it turns out.
The tipping point? TIME magazine recently published its second February 2025 cover, which features Musk sitting at the president’s Resolute desk. There is perhaps no better or more powerful symbol of the American presidency than the presidential seal itself. The Republicans against Trump X account predicted that Trump would “HATE the new cover of TIME magazine.”
Because everything is televised now, we got to see Trump’s reaction as he learned about the provocative new magazine cover, live. Unsurprisingly, the President did not seem pleased to find out about this development.
When asked if he had a reaction to Musk sitting at “your Resolute desk,” the president shook his head and looked at the ground. “No,” he said. He pondered his answer for a long moment while the Japanese interpreter translated the question for Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Trump then asked if TIME magazine is still in business when he probably already knows the answer to that question since they put him on the cover in December. “I didn’t know that,” he says. He then goes on to praise Musk’s work. Whether Trump is truly pleased about sharing the spotlight remains to be seen.
Trump has always had a fixation with the cover of TIME magazine. A fake TIME cover featuring Trump was once proudly displayed at five of his golf resorts. In 2017, TIME put former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon on the cover along with a caption reading, “The Great Manipulator.” This reportedly annoyed Trump, and Bannon was out later that year.
This brings us back to DOGE, the hastily created government “agency” that’s been wreaking havoc on the government. To be clear, DOGE is not a cabinet-level government organization. That would require the approval of Congress, which is why Trump uses executive orders so often. The organization purportedly exists to eliminate wasteful and potentially illegal spending by the government.
The exact wording of the executive order involves modernizing technology to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” It was initially supposed to be run by both Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, but the latter departed before the organization was officially formed. Despite all the hubbub, DOGE is not intended to be a permanent fixture of the U.S. Government. It’s scheduled to dissolve on July 4 of next year.
So what has it been up to? If you believe Musk, it’s “saved taxpayers $1 billion in crazy DEI contracts.” The thing that’s been capturing the most attention is reports that Musk and his followers now have access to sensitive federal data, with one of his engineers reportedly being only 19 years old.
DOGE put the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in its crosshairs, and that agency is nearing shutdown. DOGE is reportedly also targeting the Education Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the General Services Administration. This fast movement has alarmed pretty much everyone.
Early in the morning on February 8, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued an emergency order to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing records at the U.S. Treasury. This emergency injunction will last a week while proceedings play out in federal court.
Will all this attention and the Time cover be the thing that separates Musk from a historically fickle president? Not if he has anything to say about it. Musk took to his social media platform X to gush about the president, writing, “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.”
Whether Trump will continue to reciprocate that “love” is another question entirely.
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