Time envisions Trump in crown, robe: ‘King me’

Time Magazine shows President Trump looking into a mirror and seeing himself as king on its latest cover to depict the president’s handling of Robert Mueller’s investigation into his campaign.

The illustration, by artist Tim O’Brien, shows the kingly reflection of Trump making eye contact with the reader in a mirror framed to look like the president’s official portrait.

O’Brien said the image is meant to depict Trump’s treatment of Mueller’s investigation and the inquiries into his campaign and administration, which escalated this week with Trump’s assertion that he has the power to pardon himself.

“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,” O’Brien said in an interview with Time.

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“Besides the usual challenge of the short deadline and making the image work, whether or not to have him looking at himself or looking at us was the thing I pondered most. His eye contact with each reader, each American fits the situation best,” he added.

Previous Time covers from O’Brien have shown the president behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office weathering a gale of criticism, one of which was entitled “Nothing to See Here” and a later one named “Stormy,” a reference to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Trump battled with the magazine in November after he said the publication called to tell him he would only “probably” be their “Person of the Year.”

Time rejected Trump’s claim last year, saying its editors do not typically comment on their selection for “Person of the Year” until the publication is released.