California Governor Gavin Newsom poked fun at U.S. President Donald Trump by posting an edited version of his Time magazine cover.
The cover celebrates Trump’s Middle East peace deal, headlined “His Triumph.”
In a Truth Social Post, Trump called the cover a “super bad” picture that “disappeared” his hair and showed a “floating crown” above his head.
Highlights
- Governor Gavin Newsom mocked Trump's TIME cover by posting a blurred neck edit, highlighting long-running jokes about his neck online.
- Trump called the TIME cover photo ‘super bad,’ complaining about hair disappearance and a floating crown above his head.
- Newsom’s office also ridiculed Eric Trump for promoting a book signing amid a government shutdown affecting millions.
- Stephen Colbert joked about the cover photo’s angle and humorously suggested alternative, comically unflattering AI images of Trump.
“Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Tuesday.
“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird!”
Gavin Newsom poked fun at Donald Trump’s Time magazine cover photo
Image credits: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Soon after, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office shared an edited version of the image, mocking Trump. The image had been edited to blur Trump’s neck.
Trump’s neck has long drawn online jokes, with many memes exaggerating its appearance and comparing it to genitalia.
Image credits: TIME/x
Time released the cover on Monday, accompanying a story that praised Trump for helping negotiate a peace plan between Israel and Hamas. The story highlighted the work of Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
The cover image featured a low-angle photograph of Trump gazing upward into bright sunlight.
Image credits: Governor Newsom Press Office/X
Kari Lake, acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, also shared a photoshopped cover that made Trump appear slimmer and younger.
Time has been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism. In 2017, Time intervened when Trump displayed a fake cover from 2009, titled, “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS... EVEN TV!” which was framed and hung in at least five of Trump’s golf clubs.
That same year, Trump expressed disappointment at not being named Time’s Person of the Year, an award he later won in 2024.
Newsom’s press office also made fun of Eric Trump for promoting a book signing during a partial government shutdown.
Newsom criticized Eric Trump’s book signing during a partial government shutdown
“The Government is shut down, people are getting laid off, health care is becoming more expensive and the ‘ruling’ family is out promoting their next grift,” the account wrote.
Earlier, the office shared a photoshopped image of a beard on a cut of ham, poking fun at Trump’s border official Tom Homan.
Comedian Stephen Colbert also joked about the unflattering angle of the Time cover photo and suggested alternative AI photos for the magazine to use.
These include Trump “solving horse crimes,” where he is dressed as a cowboy sheriff, or “the one where he has an extremely casual attitude towards highway safety,” where Trump is holding a guitar while riding a motorbike.
For his punchline, Colbert said, “You want a flattering photo for the cover of Time? How about this one?”
Image credits: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
He showed a 1997 picture of Trump and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The disgraced financier and sex offender was a notable friend of Trump, at times even described as his “best friend,” till the early 2000s.
The Trump administration has come under fire from MAGA fans and critics alike for its lack of transparency on documents related to the Epstein investigations.
“Wait, hold on, what’s that pervert doing in there?” Colbert then said about the picture. “Take that pervert out.”
The photo was replaced. But it was Trump, not Epstein, edited out of it.
Colbert added, “Of course, the president of the United States is far too busy hammering out the details of a deal to end a generational conflict in the Middle East to worry about how he looks on some biweekly magazine... you would think.”