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Attempting to shrug off a recent Time cover showing Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk as president, Donald Trump mockingly asked whether the magazine was “still in business” while claiming he hadn’t seen the latest issue.
The president’s dismissive snipe at Time comes just weeks after he boasted about being named the magazine’s 2024 Person of the Year, an honor he’s long coveted and first received after winning the presidential election in 2016.
Speaking to reporters from the White House during a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Trump was asked if he had any response to Time portraying the world’s richest man as the one who is really in charge of the White House. The provocative cover was accompanied by a lengthy story on Musk’s upheaval of the federal government, describing it as the DOGE chief’s “war on Washington.”
“Mr. President, do you have any reaction to the new Time cover that has Elon Musk sitting behind your Resolute Desk?” a White House reporter wondered while the president’s body language noticeably changed.
“No,” Trump replied, insisting he had not yet seen the cover. “Is Time Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that. Elon is doing a great job.”
The president went on to praise Musk for “finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste,” which has included the Tesla CEO essentially shutting down the United States Agency for International Development, which is responsible for delivering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.
“He‘s got a staff that‘s fantastic,” Trump added about Musk’s DOGE team, which recently saw a staffer resign after racist comments were exposed. Vice President JD Vance has argued that the employee should be reinstated.
Trump went on to say that Musk would soon be made available for press briefings so that reporters could ask him questions about his efforts to dismantle government departments, saying that the mega-billionaire “is not shy.”
While the president is now pretending that he was unaware that Time is “still in business” as it produces a cover that almost certainly makes him seethe behind the scenes, Trump was ecstatic about making the magazine’s cover just a few months ago.
On the same day the magazine’s Person of the Year edition hit newsstands, featuring the newly elected president as its recipient, Trump was given his first opportunity to ring the New York Stock Exchange opening bell. Calling both the bell-ringing and the Time cover “a tremendous honor,” Trump gushed over being recognized by the magazine.
“Time Magazine, getting this honor for the second time, I think I like it better this time actually,” he said in December.
While he has also regularly derided Time, especially in years when he hasn’t been named one of the publication’s most influential people, he has also long pined for the outlet’s approval. At one point, he even hung a fake Time cover story of him in Mar-a-Lago.
The president, meanwhile, was absolutely elated when he was tapped as Person of the Year in 2016. At the time, he called the magazine “very important” and said that it had bestowed a “tremendous honor” upon him.
