The provocative cover of Time magazine puts Elon Musk behind Trump’s desktop

CNN
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In a provocative movement that could be aimed at fanning the wrath of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the last printed cover of Time magazine shows Elon Musk behind the Resolute desk of the Oval Office.

The historic biweekly publication, known for its historically significant covers, comes out at a time when Trump has granted Musk already its Government Efficiency Department (Doge) for an extraordinary power to cut the federal staff, power that It has been hindered, at least to some extent, by some judicial demands in recent days.

The simple cover, which shows Musk, coffee in hand, between the presidential desk and the American and presidential flags, is adorned with a red background. Simon Schuster’s attached article and Brian Bennett deepens the ruthless Musk campaign that has left “millions of government workers at Musk’s mercy.”

“Until now, Musk seems not to account for anyone but President Trump, who gave his benefactor of the campaign a broad mandate to align the government with his agenda,” Schuster and Bennett wrote. And they add: “Doge directed all Time’s questions about his work to the White House, which declined to comment.”

Time’s last number represents the second time in recent months that Musk appears on the cover of the magazine, after having done so in November as “Citizen Musk” with a complementary report in which he presented himself to the billionaire as a “maker of Kings ”for his role in the presidential elections. Both covers suggest that it is Musk, and not Trump, the true power after the proverbial throne, an idea that could cause Trump’s anger, famous for his fascination for the magazine and for not sharing power.

That could be the point, although Time did not respond to a request for comments from CNN on whether the cover was intentionally designed as a provocation to Trump.

This Friday, Trump was consulted on the cover at the White House.

“Is Time magazine still in the business?” Trump asked jokingly. “I didn’t even know.”

The president has spoken with reverence about the iconic magazine of Marco Rojo, which, for Trump, occupies a place of power and privilege. Trump has been elected twice “person of the year” of Time – the last time in 2024 – and has already appeared on his cover since he returned to the presidency. His desire to appear on the cover has been so burning that he manufactured a number of the magazine with praise to his reality television show, “the apprentice.”

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If Time intended to provoke, it would not be the first time that the famous cover of the magazine opens a gap between Trump and one of its main followers.

Time’s most recent report on Musk remembers its 2017 cover about Steve Bannon, who, like Musk now, had the president’s attention during his first period in the White House. As with Musk and the new government, the first days of Trump’s first administration were overshadowed by articles in the press that they claimed that Bannon – then the White House Head of the House – was the puppeteer behind the Resolute desk, and Time He came to qualify Bannon as “the great manipulator.” In Pop culture, reference was made to Bannon as the “President Bannon” and in “Saturday Night Live” was described as the grilled that moved Trump’s threads.

For Trump – who historically did not like to bother him – the slow eclipse of Bannon who created Trump’s perception of weakness was a punishable offense with dismissal. The litany of perceived disagreements finally led to the public dismissal of Bannon and his loss of the favor of the president.

Notably, Musk, who relentlessly uses his pulpit in X to attack those with whom he does not agree, has so far avoided his last laurels.

Since Trump’s return to the Oval Office, Musk’s mandate has been to replicate the brute force used to destroy the Twitter template after its acquisition in 2022 of the social media platform now known as X. But, in a little characteristic movement Trump, the media tycoon seems to have a free way for cuts.

“He (Trump) said that if Elon Musk meets a conflict of interest with contracts and financing that Doge is supervising, then Elon can excuse those contracts,” said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary of the Trump government, during an informative session on Wednesday.