By Kristy Puchko | Politics | June 28, 2017 |
By Kristy Puchko | Politics | June 28, 2017 |
It’s no secret that Donald Trump is vain and self-aggrandizing. Months after he won the election (though not the popular vote), he still tweets to remind us. He even embroiders the details, declaring it’s a huge win, bigger than any Republican before him. (It’s not.) And he even took the time out to gleefully mock the failures of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Apprentice, relishing that his original version had bigly ratings. So we really shouldn’t be surprised by the latest revelation about Trump’s ego: He’s got a fake Time magazine cover featuring himself hanging in at least five of his clubs, including Mar-a-Lago.
Now Trump has actually appeared on a Time cover, 14 times. There’s this one:
This one:
This one:
And these two:
But this is what hangs in Trump clubs across the country:
This embarrassingly obvious forgery brandishes the TIME title right across Trump’s face, breaking from magazine tradition. And this poor photoshop appears to have been created solely to celebrate Trump’s achievements with The Apprentice. It reads: “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS . . . EVEN TV!” and “Donald Trump: The ‘Apprentice’ is a television smash!” Meaning whoever built this for The Donald, has a typo in its key headline. It should read “Donald Trump: ‘The Apprentice’ is a television smash!” But hey, punctuation is tricky.
The Washington Post notes several other elements that make this image an apparent forgery, including “It has two exclamation points. Time headlines don’t yell.” (Who does yell and favor excessive exclamation points though? Hmmmm.) A Times spokesperson has confirmed the cover is a fake. And WaPo reporter David Fahrenthold even uncovered the photoshop tutorial that was likely used to make the cover, as it shares the same barcode seen above. Funny enough, the tutorial was about making a Person of the Year cover featuring Barack Obama.
This 2010 Photoshop tutorial, showing how to fake a Time cover, includes a sample barcode. Same code on Trump's fake https://t.co/dlEaNoQU1q
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) June 27, 2017
And of course the cover Trump snatched as his own actually belonged to a woman, specifically Kate Winslet.
But the greatest irony might be the bullshit cover stories the unknown photoshopper decided should share in this unearned moment of glory.
“Obama’s Next Move: Can He Curb Health-Care Costs?” [sic] and “Global Warming: A New Age of Extinction.” Even in Trump’s trumped up fantasies, Global Warming is real, and Obamacare impinges on all the praise he feels he deserves.
The Guardian reports Time is asking that these false covers be taken down. And the White House refuses to respond, well to much of anything, but certainly not the “decor” of the president’s golf clubs. Meanwhile, Twitter is having a field day.
Heck why should we stop at Time Magazine?? pic.twitter.com/2jbMnE3hST
— Impeach Donald Trump (@Impeach_D_Trump) June 28, 2017
Still my fav EW cover pic.twitter.com/iUUB6PP90q
— Kevin P. Sullivan (@KPSull) June 27, 2017
Every time Donald Trump uses the term #FakeNews this needs to be tweeted back at him pic.twitter.com/3hecTb3FHG
— Rob Smith (@grumpypostie) June 28, 2017
The fact that Trump rails against "fake news" yet made a fake Time cover is definitive proof that "fake" just means negative news about him.
— OhNoSheTwitnt ðŸ³ï¸â€ðŸŒˆ (@OhNoSheTwitnt) June 28, 2017
Imagine the fragility of a POTUS who frames & hangs a fake Time cover. Why not 'World's Greatest Dad"? Oh, right…https://t.co/3LHBzXk5xG
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) June 27, 2017
But the best comes from Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly, representing Virginia’s 11th district:
Wow, my first cover of Time. Asked my staff to frame this and hang it in all four of my offices. @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/Hx57ZJExR8 pic.twitter.com/y1HciTB5G1
— Gerry Connolly (@GerryConnolly) June 27, 2017