In what he likely thought was an aspirational portrait, Donald Trump keeps a framed Time Magazine cover in which he is depicted as royalty, featuring the words “King Me,” on the wall of an office at one of his clubs. And unlike other depictions of him on Time covers that he fabricated, this one is real.
The cover comes from the June 18, 2018 issue of Time, which covered Trump’s 500th day in office. In the issue, Trump is characterized as acting as though he were an untouchable monarch. “This portrait of Trump gazing into a mirror and seeing a king gets to the heart of how he and his legal team have approached this past week and the past 500 days, actually,” artist Tim O’Brien says. It could be used today for the same reason.