Time on Tuesday asked the Trump Organization to remove any fake covers of the magazine displayed at the presidential family’s business properties.
The magazine’s request to the group came after a Washington Post report revealed that several of President Donald Trump’s golf courses had a framed copy of a doctored Time cover, which featured the commander in chief as the cover story.
At the top of the fake cover, white text reads “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS... EVEN TV!” The cover also promotes a fake news article on Trump’s former show “The Apprentice” as a “television smash!”
A spokeswoman for Time confirmed with the Post that the cover, which is dated March 1, 2009, is fake.
The fake cover was displayed in at least five of Trump’s clubs, The Washington Post reported. There’s even one hanging inside of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property near the entrance, next to a framed Newsweek cover that also featured Trump.
As the Post pointed out, there are several design differences between Trump’s fake cover and real Time magazine covers: The red border around the edge is thinner, there is no thin white border inside the edge of the red and the secondary headlines are in the wrong place.
The fake magazine cover also teases three real Time magazine articles as substories, including “Obama’s Next Move: Can He Curb Health-Care Costs?” and “How Stressed Is Your Bank: A Checkup” ― which are featured on a March 2, 2009, issue with Kate Winslet on the cover ― and a cover story titled “Global Warming: A New Age of Extinction” published in Time’s April 2, 2009, issue.
Throughout his candidacy and presidency, Trump has expressed his hatred for so-called “fake news” and dismissed media organizations as the “enemy of the American people.” So it’s unclear why he or the Trump Organization would opt for using a fake cover story as decoration at his eponymous properties.
The Trump Organization did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on why the fake covers were on display at Trump’s properties or whether or not they would take them down, per Time’s request.
The Trump Organization could have easily used a real Time magazine cover featuring the president. Time has featured 14 cover stories on Trump. However, the only Time cover Trump scored before the buzz around his bid for presidency was one published in January 1989. “This man may turn you green with envy ― or just turn you off,” that cover story read. “Flaunting it is the game, and TRUMP is the name.”
When scanned, the fake cover’s barcode leads to software for a karaoke program.
And it’s apparently not the first time Trump has been caught with a fake Time magazine. In May, Politico reported that K.T. McFarland, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, gave the president two printouts of Time magazine covers. One was about a future ice age from the 1970s and the other was about surviving global warming, the politics news site reported.
The Time story from the 1970s was actually an internet hoax.
After the Post uncovered the fake Time covers featuring Trump, many internet users were inspired to create their own magazine covers.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) mockingly celebrated his first Time Magazine “cover story,” which included stories titled, “How Stressed is Mike Pence? A Checkup” and “Global Warming: Trump Says ‘Chinese Hoax.’” Even ABC’s news anchors got in on the joke.
Below, see the many wonderful Time magazine covers created in response to Trump’s 2009 cover ― all of which are fake.