Time magazine‘s latest cover shows an image of billionaire Elon Musk sitting behind President Donald Trump’s Resolute desk as the DOGE leader wreaks havoc in Washington.
Accompanying the cover is an accompanying piece written by Simon Schuster and Brian Bennett about the chaotic campaign that Musk has waged against the federal government leaving “millions of government workers to find themselves at Musk’s mercy.”
“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.”
When asked about the cover on Friday at the White House, Trump responded jokingly “Is Time magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that.”
Trump went on to defend Musk, “Elon is doing a great job. He’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste. You see it with USAID, but you’re going to see it even more so with other agencies and other parts of government.” Adding “He’s been wanting to do this for a long time.”
Trump, himself, has graced the cover of Time magazine over 40 times over the years, most recently when he was named ‘Person of the Year’ by the magazine in December.
Musk, the Tesla CEO, SpaceX founder, richest man in the world, and leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was also named “special government employee” this week, as he works alongside President Donald Trump to reshape the federal government.