In what can only be described as a move designed to ruffle presidential feathers, Time magazine’s latest cover stars none other than Elon Musk—seated confidently behind the Resolute Desk, coffee in hand, looking like he just made himself at home in the White House.
The magazine, famous for its iconic and sometimes controversial covers, chose to feature Musk at a time when he’s been handed extraordinary power by President Trump. As the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE—yes, really), Musk has been given free rein to slash through federal bureaucracy with all the finesse of a man live-tweeting his own thought process at 3 AM.
The bold cover features Musk sandwiched between the American and presidential flags, against a dramatic red backdrop, looking every bit the commander-in-chief. Inside, the accompanying feature by Simon Schuster and Brian Bennett paints a picture of Musk as the government’s ultimate efficiency expert—one who has left millions of federal workers nervously refreshing their emails.
“So far, Musk appears accountable to no one but President Trump, who handed his campaign benefactor a sweeping mandate to bring the government in line with his agenda,” Schuster and Bennett wrote. “DOGE directed all of TIME’s questions about its work to the White House, which declined to comment.”
This is actually Musk’s second Time cover in recent months. Back in November, he graced the magazine as “Citizen Musk,” hailed as a political kingmaker. Now, it appears he’s leveled up from kingmaker to, well, king? The suggestion that Musk wields more influence than Trump himself is sure to get under the president’s famously thin skin—after all, this is a man who once hung a fake Time cover of himself in his golf club.
Asked about the cover at the White House on Friday, Trump played it cool. “Is Time magazine still in business?” he quipped. “I didn’t even know that.”
For a man who has graced the cover multiple times—including as Time’s Person of the Year—Trump’s sudden amnesia about the publication seems suspect. He’s long viewed the red-bordered magazine as a symbol of power and influence, to the extent that he once fabricated an issue featuring himself for a little extra ego boost.
If Time’s cover was designed to provoke Trump, it wouldn’t be the first time the magazine has caused a rift between the president and his allies. Back in 2017, the magazine branded Steve Bannon “The Great Manipulator,” a title that did not go over well in the Trump White House. Before long, Bannon found himself out of favor and out of a job.
Musk, however, has been uncharacteristically quiet about his latest accolade. Normally quick to fire off tweets at critics, he has yet to comment on his latest Time feature. Perhaps he’s too busy running DOGE—or maybe he’s just enjoying the view from the (fictional) Oval Office.
Since Trump’s return to power, Musk’s government efficiency mandate has been compared to the mass layoffs he orchestrated at Twitter (now X) after his 2022 acquisition. But unlike Twitter, where he answered only to himself, in Washington, he technically still reports to Trump—unless, of course, this cover is a sign that things are shifting.
“He [Trump] said that if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts,” Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt assured the press this week.
Uh-huh. We’ll believe it when we see it.
