I have been on their cover like 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time
record in the history of TIME Magazine.
Donald Trump has always had a fascination with TIME.
He first landed on the cover on January 16, 1989, 28 years before his inauguration.
Since before his election, Trump has regularly campaigned to be named TIME's Person of the Year,
using rallies and his Twitter feed to comment on TIME's choices.
They should have picked me for the Person of the Year but they didn't. No they should.
And perhaps most notably, fake TIME covers were designed to hang in his golf course clubhouses.
TIME has a long history of featuring presidents on the cover, and Trump has been no exception. Eight of
the top ten people to appear most often on TIME's cover are U.S. presidents. Trump finished his term
with 35 covers, the fourth most of any president behind Richard Nixon's 55 covers,
Ronald Reagan with 46, and Bill Clinton with 40. Rounding out the top 10 are George W. Bush with 32,
Barack Obama 31, Jimmy Carter 27, Jesus 22 and Hillary Clinton and George H.W. Bush tied at 21.
We first introduced candidate Trump to TIME's readers in August of 2015
when photographer Martin Schoeller and TIME Editor-at-Large Paul Moakley brought a live bald
eagle to the Trump Tower in New York City for a portrait. This symbol of democracy was particularly
animated during the photo and video session, even angrily nipping at the president's hand.
during the 2016 campaign, we produced seven covers featuring Trump and created an
original visual language for this president with the artwork of artist Edel Rodriguez.
Rodriguez who worked as TIME's international art director in the 1990s
has a strong, simple graphic style that immediately grabbed worldwide recognition
with the "Meltdown" cover, a reflection of his slumping campaign following the Republican
National Convention. Two months later in response to the release of the infamous
Access Hollywood tape, Rodriguez followed with an updated image with the headline "Total Meltdown."
Of course TIME reports many different topics and the visual approaches on the cover reinforces that variety.
We have presented President Trump as a frenetic Twitter user crumbling at the Washington
Monument, a punching bag, a graphic wrecking ball, an angry character with his hair on fire,
a cross between himself and Vladimir Putin, a king looking into a cover, a slingshot-holding
fighter dueling with Nancy Pelosi, a happy president whistling under an umbrella in the rain,
and a man who has painted himself into a corner. We've also photographed Trump
for multiple covers including a White House tour for our May 22, 2017 cover,
and an Oval Office conversation in the summer of 2019 on Trump's plan to keep the White House.
My favorite TIME cover of Trump is "Nothing To See Here" from February 27, 2017. I believe the
strongest TIME covers leave space for a variety of perspectives. For this cover, if you're an opponent
of President Trump you look at the cover and you see all the chaos that this man has created. And
if you're a supporter of the president you look at it and say, "Even among all the chaos in Washington
look how resolute he is sitting behind that desk." That is a great place for a TIME cover to be.
That image was created by long-time TIME collaborator Tim O'Brien who has painted
more covers in the past 30 years than any other artist. It was the first of what would become a
series of four paintings from O'Brien depicting Trump in a growing storm within the Oval Office.
Our Trump covers have certainly not been without debate. An image we created of Trump
staring down at a young immigrant girl for our "Welcome To America" cover sparked controversy.
During the campaign, Trump frequently used a cover proclaiming "How Trump Won" as a selling
point on the campaign trail. On numerous occasions, the president also tweeted out a fake TIME cover animation
of our “How Trumpism Outlasts Trump”, a cover from October 22, 2018.
But for most of the past year the president's image on the cover took a back seat to frontline workers,
racial injustice protests, and the rising COVID numbers. And even though the image of
Trump wasn't physically shown on two recent covers, his influence was still present.
While Trump's presidency has come to a close, it's certainly possible that we
haven't seen the last of him on the cover of TIME.