# Time magazine pranks Trump! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241 "2016-12-08T23:25:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/81 "2016-12-11T01:50:15Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Here’s an interesting article on the cover portrait. > > [Why Trump’s Cover Portrait Is a Subversive Work of Political Art](http://forward.com/culture/356537/why-times-trump-cover-is-a-subversive-work-of-political-art/) Excellent article. This is what happens when real writers set out to deconstruct something. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/82 "2016-12-11T04:01:30Z")
I have a theory about how they got him to take the pose… it absolutely minimises the double chin, in fact I can see no trace of it at all 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/83 "2016-12-11T04:30:01Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > [Look for yourself](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/12/07/12/3B2376AF00000578-0-image-a-1_1481114186697.jpg); you’ll see it. Can’t look. Much too depressing. [Hal Lindsey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late,_Great_Planet_Earth) is still around. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/84 "2016-12-11T04:50:40Z")
I think the pose fits with the cover’s subtitle: “President of the Divided States of America”. It’s implied there are two groups of people - an “us and them”. There’s the audience Trump is nominally facing with his chair and the audience Trump has turned his head to face. The article imagines Trump offering the viewer, who he has turned to face, a “conspiratorial and conniving wink, as if to say, look at how we hoodwinked those suckers in the front (both Trump and the viewer are looking down on those in front)”. I think it could also be imagined the other way round, with those in front of his chair representing Trump’s “us” - his family, political cronies, supporters and those whom his policies are intended to benefit. The viewer, whom Trump has turned his head to face with a rather steely gaze, is Trump’s “them” who are looking in from the outside. It is they that are faced with the decaying back of the chair, which functions as a metaphor both for the hardship of their exclusion from Trump’s political worldview and for the rottenness behind the gilded facade. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/85 "2016-12-13T16:10:48Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > It was a minor yuk on the part of the cover designer. I pointed it out as a minor yuk. Your OP: > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > OMFG is all I can say. Them’s some brass balls. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/86 "2016-12-13T17:01:21Z")
> [@GrandWino](#): > > Your OP: Maybe my comments signaled a DEFCON 1 critical reaction to you. Since you and others apparently scrutinize my every posted word here, you should know that I hardly every use net-logisms like OMG except in the highest snark. And “prank” is pretty far down the list of public attack levels. But by all means chalk it up as a victory. Of something. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/87 "2016-12-13T17:59:11Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > That analysis is at least a little more interesting than simply, “They deliberately framed the photo so the M looks like devil’s horns on his head”. Because not to frame it like that would require that Trump’s picture be small enough to sit below the magazine’s name, and that would generate its own controversy. No, just move him a bit to the left or right, so that his head isn’t centered right below the M. There’s plenty of wiggle room. It’s not like his head is aligned on the rule of thirds or the rule of fifths. And that’s just using the same image. They have complete control. They could just use a different photograph. But they chose this one, which intentionally portrays Trump as possibly sinister. The only thing that doesn’t look sinister is his facial expression. And while Time Magazine [made a list](http://time.com/3742509/donald-trump-time-person-of-the-year-horns/) of other covers that they say give the person horns, the vast majority don’t. Most are not centered on the M. And the handful that are don’t have a deliberately sinister picture. (And none of them were Person of the Year covers.) Plus, they had the opportunity to flat out say it was coincidence, and yet they avoid doing so. They give themselves just enough wiggle room. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/88 "2016-12-13T18:35:52Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > The problem here is not that you are so much more sophisticated than the average Doper, Before your post, where does he indicate that he thinks that’s the issue? He just balks because people were freaking out over something so minor. It is normal to let people try and guess something in a picture before revealing it in a subsequent post. I mean, a guy basically said he wanted to punch him, with nary a moderator in sight. I think it makes sense that he’s a bit perturbed. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/89 "2016-12-13T20:06:09Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Yes, for certain values of “accidental.” > > When you do complex high-end layouts like magazines and catalogs for a living, absolutely no detail escapes you (or your peers). You see details and relationships most people, even those generally artistically inclined, just don’t. Most designers, given the choice of bumping something one millimeter this way and missing a joke or two millimeters that way and making a visual… pun, joke, snark, quirk - will do the latter. And deny it with a straight face. > > It also pays off when there are good reasons NOT to introduce any kind of potential insult into a layout, such as juxtapositions of ethnically, socially or politically sensitive components. > > But I’ve only been doing this for about 30 years, so if any real experts want to correct me, please do. So why did Time prank Pope John Paul, Bill Clinton and King Faisal? Based on your knowledge and experience, they must have intended to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/90 "2016-12-13T20:33:05Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > That’s it. > > Applause from a very experienced graphic designer. No way it was accidental; but done so well there’s complete deniability. That’s it? That’s their brass-balls-requiring prank? Are you sure? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241/91 "2016-12-14T11:50:16Z")
**BigT** Stop suggesting that **muldoonthief** wanted to punch or harm the OP. He did no such thing, basically or otherwise. Open a pit thread if you need to. No warning issued. > [@BigT](#): > > Before your post, where does he indicate that he thinks that’s the issue? He just balks because people were freaking out over something so minor. It is normal to let people try and guess something in a picture before revealing it in a subsequent post. > > I mean, a guy basically said he wanted to punch him, with nary a moderator in sight. I think it makes sense that he’s a bit perturbed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-magazine-pranks-trump/774241.md?page=4)