TIME magazine’s latest cover features Elon Musk seated at the Oval Office’s Resolute desk.
President Donald Trump has derided the newest TIME magazine cover showcasing Elon Musk. The print edition depicts the Tesla and SpaceX CEO at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
The February 24, 2025, cover shows Musk, head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), centrally positioned at the desk, flanked by American and presidential flags, holding a coffee cup.
The magazine features an article titled ‘Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington’, detailing the Trump ally’s efforts to restructure the federal government since the President’s January 20th inauguration.
“No… Is TIME Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that,” Trump remarked to reporters on Friday.
This follows the magazine’s naming of Trump as ‘Person of the Year’ two months prior, an honor he first received after his 2016 election win.
Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, serves as a ‘special government employee’ leading DOGE under the Trump administration. He’s currently among the President’s key advisors.
In November, Musk co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed outlining extensive budget cut plans. The billionaire stated the newly formed agency—not yet a permanent federal executive department despite its name—would aid the President in “hir[ing] a lean team of small-government crusaders” to achieve “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”
DOGE aims to reduce the federal budget by $2 trillion by 2026.
This month, the Musk-led department reported saving over $1 billion by eliminating contracts tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed executive orders reversing transgender protections and ending DEI initiatives implemented by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Previously, the agency reported slashing daily federal spending by approximately $1 billion as of January 29th, attributing the savings to halting “the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, the deletion of DEI, and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations.”
Furthermore, the Trump administration has targeted the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a key funder of overseas political projects, planning to place thousands of its employees on leave. Musk has labeled USAID a “criminal organization” and alleged its involvement in bioweapons research.