What’s wrong with Trump’s Time Person of the Year cover?

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Whether you like it or not, Time made Donald Trump “Person of the Year” for the second time. I don’t like it, but I can admit that Trump had a pretty eventful 2024. He was the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime and then the first convicted felon to be elected president. He was also shot in the ear. To celebrate all his ups and downs, Time gave him an interview and a photo shoot where he looks… different.

Let’s start with the cover. Trump is squatting in a position I’ve never seen comfortably adopted by a 78-year-old, even though the high-contrast editing has obscured his pant legs to the point where they could do literally anything. His face is…haunted? Has his cheek fat been removed or has it simply been forgotten?

The rest of the photos, which are in black and white (also high contrast), only become more surreal. One shows Trump vigorously smooching the American flag, which has the effect of recalling the many allegations of sexual assault against him. In another instance, his hands look artificially enlarged, as if a telephoto lens had been used to address one of his supposed insecurities. Gone is the neon tone of a man with too much fake tan and bronzer in his palette; Instead, the heavy airbrushing appears to have given this man entirely new cheekbones. I never thought I’d say this, but: Make Trump orange again?