The Selfie of 2025

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In a turn of events that may surprise some, Donald Trump expressed a few relatable insecurities this week. First he questioned the attractiveness of his beach body, then he blasted Time magazine for an unflattering cover photo. In fairness, he wasn’t wrong. He called the picture, taken from below, “the worst of all time”. People have focused on the wattle neck, the gossamer hair, the inside of his nostrils.

‘The worst of all time’: Trump rails against ‘super bad’ Time magazine cover

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The question he asked of the editorial decision was actually a pertinent one. “What are they doing, and why?” This is the kind of scrutiny that the press should attract, except that media literacy is dying a fast death – and that has a lot to do with Trump himself. Constantly lambasting Pulitzer prize-winning publications as “fake news” and then retweeting Photoshopped images and deep fakes isn’t helping the situation.

Here are some past memorable Trump covers – some of which he admired, and others which, in no uncertain terms, he did not.

Time, 2024

Photograph: Evan Vucci/Time

This is no doubt a cover much more to the President’s liking. Love him or despise him, it’s undeniable that standing up mere seconds after a bullet grazes the side of one’s head and yelling “Fight, fight, fight!” is a brave move. Crazy maybe, but brave. The photo of that moment, shot by Evan Vucci, will go down as one of the most significant images in political history.

Time and Trump have a turbulent relationship. He famously mocked up covers of himself to hang at four of his golf clubs, which resulted in the magazine writing to the President to ask him to remove them (and a pillorying cartoon from The New Yorker). The magazine has issued a number of memorable covers of Trump, including an illustration of stormy conditions in the Oval Office, and one of his golf cart stuck in a bunker.

Photograph: Time

One of his more recent Time covers was when he was named Person of the Year – a title Trump has received twice. (Although he once claimed he had turned it down, Time magazine denied it in a statement.) Before Trump entered the White House for the first time, he had only featured on the cover of the magazine once, in 1989. But in 2017 he falsely claimed to have been on the cover more times than anybody else. In fact Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan at that time surpassed him.

On the second occasion he received his Person of the Year designation, Trump said: “Well, thank you very much. This is an honor, a tremendous honor.” (Up for debate, when previous recipients include Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.) He was pleased too with one Time cover, brandishing it at a rally in Des Moines. “They used to call it the ‘Man of the Year,’ but they can’t do that anymore. They call it ‘Person of the Year.’ It’s the same thing. That’s fine. But look at that – that’s a good-looking cover.”

Esquire, 2004

Photograph: Esquire

While Trump may not have featured on the Time cover very much pre-politics, he did feature on many others as New York’s brash, publicity-seeking business mogul and Manhattan social scene fixture. Trump is obsessed with gold. He loves bling. It makes sense then that Esquire would kit him out in medallions and rings galore. Also shout out to the accompanying cover lines of: “Wild tales of strippers! Streakers! Tsunamis! Leopard Attacks!” Talk about something for everybody. And note the other feature: “The Case for Bush”. This is not, in fact, an editorial on pubic hair, but about George W.

Oh, and the strap for the Trump story? “How I’d Run the Country (Better)”. Indeed, Trump’s first mention of his wish to achieve the highest office was circa 1987. Turns out we should have taken him both seriously and literally.

C 41, 2016

Donald trump on cover of C 41 Magazine Photograph: C 41 Magazine

An extremely innovative cover from the Milan-based magazine dedicated to all things design and style. Layering the cover with a Trompe-l’œil style technique (pun possibly intended), the magazine’s gallery arm put on an exhibition entitled American Change, in which this cover, created by Japanese artist Kensuke Koike, features. A copy of the magazine was also included in the London Design Museum’s Hope to Nope show.

Photograph: Washington Post

There are other similarly themed covers; Trump’s mouth is rather a subject of fascination. Note that impressionists will first attempt to nail his voice; then the second thing is the puckering of the mouth. Recently, the queen of the Netherlands was caught mocking Trump’s lip movements – a bold move given he was standing right next to her. Some might liken the general aesthetic of this particular maw to a cat’s bum, but that wouldn’t be me. What is good about this cover is it is a departure from the usual way cover designers depict Trump’s mouth – which is black text across his philtrum to resemble a Hitler moustache. It’s been done, guys. Many, many times.

Vanity Fair, 2024

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