Elon Musk gracing the cover of Time Magazine could spell disaster for the DOGE-running tech billionaire.
Time’s latest issue shows Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk – where President Donald Trump should be positioned – in the Oval Office.
‘No,’ Trump first responded in the Oval Office Friday alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba when asked if he had a reaction to Musk’s cover.
After a long pause, he then sarcastically replied: ‘Is Time Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that.’
He added: ‘Elon is doing a great job. He’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste,’ the president added, pointing to the work the billionaire has done collapsing USAID. ‘He’s got a staff that’s fantastic. He’s wanted to do this for a long time.’
Trump had touted being named Time’s Person of the Year himself last year.
In February of 2017, Time Magazine put White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon on the cover and asked the question: ‘Is Steve Bannon the second most powerful man in the world?’
At the time, Bannon was labeled ‘The Great Manipulator.’
In April 2017, The New York Times reported that Trump was annoyed by that cover, telling people ‘that doesn’t just happen,’ a term the president used when talking about underlings overshadowing him.
Bannon was out in August of that year.
Time Magazine’s latest cover shows Elon Musk sitting in President Donald Trump’s place behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office
President Donald Trump is captured seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office – in a similar position where Elon Musk is portrayed on the new Time magazine cover
Now, eight years later, Musk’s cover is even more provocative.
A reporter questioning Trump in the Oval Office Friday even pointed out that Musk was sitting behind ‘your Resolute Desk.’
Musk, the richest person on the planet, has received just as much attention as Trump since the Republican was sworn back in on January 20.
DOGE’s early actions – to take a wrecking ball to USAID, are chronicled in Time’s piece about the billionaire’s arrival in Washington.
Government employees at the Department of Homeland Security told the magazine how they’re assuming the ‘defensive crouch’ as they wait for DOGE to arrive.
In the aftermath of Time’s cover release, Musk was making his own moves.
‘I love @realdonaldtrump as much as a straight man can love another man,’ he professed on X, the platform he acquired, on Friday morning.
During the Friday afternoon press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Fox News’ Peter Doocy kicked off the questioning by asking Trump what the first lady thought of Musk’s pronouncement.
‘Oh I think she’ll be OK with it, somehow,’ Trump said.
In another Friday morning post, Musk cheered that Trump was the ‘Greatest president ever!’
Musk highlighted a post where Trump said he was going to end the ‘ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work.’
‘BACK TO PLASTIC!’ Trump wrote.
Musk became an ardent MAGA supporter in July, when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A February 2017 Time cover reportedly annoyed Trump when it showcased then Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon, labeling him ‘The Great Manipulator’
DAMAGE CONTROL? On Friday morning Elon Musk said that he loved President Donald Trump ‘as much as a straight man can love another man’
Minutes before he labeled Trump the ‘Greatest President ever!’ as the Republican is poised to sign an executive order barring paper straws
The billionaire SpaceX, Tesla and X boss endorsed Trump and then plowed millions into the Republican’s reelection effort over Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the run-up to the inauguration Musk rarely left Trump’s side – even renting a $2,000-a-night cottage at Mar-a-Lago.
During this time period, Vivek Ramaswamy – who has already exited as the co-leader of DOGE – and in turn Musk, started an online war with Bannon and other MAGA traditionalists over the use of H1-B visas.
Trump appeared to take the tech entrepreneurs’ side.
Musk stirred up some more trouble when he trashed the AI project Stargate, which Trump announced from the White House on January 21, just one day after inauguration.
The DOGE leader isn’t a fan of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, one of the three tech leaders involved in the $500 billion project.
A Republican close to the White House told Politico that some Trump staff were ‘furious’ at Musk for torching Stargate online.
‘It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,’ the Trump ally said. ‘The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero f***s.’
Trump was then asked about it.
‘He hates one of the people in the deal,’ the president shrugged.
