ON POLITICS

Fake 'Time' magazine Trump cover hung in his clubs, report says

You know how at some fairs and amusement parks you can have your face put on a fake magazine cover? Well, a framed copy of a fake Time cover featuring Donald Trump hung from the walls of at least five of the president's clubs, including Mar-a-Lago, The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold reported Tuesday. 

The fake cover dated March 1, 2009 features a large portrait photograph of a stern Trump with the headline "Donald Trump: The 'Apprentice' is a television smash!" 

The cover "looks like an impressive memento from Trump’s pre-presidential career," Fahrenthold wrote.

To club members eating lunch, or golfers waiting for a pro-shop purchase, it seemed to be a signal that Trump had always been a man who mattered. Even when he was just a reality TV star, Trump was the kind of star who got a cover story in Time. 

But that wasn’t true.

The Time cover is a fake.

Time confirmed that the cover was a fake in an email to the Post. The Trump Organization did not respond to the Post's questions about the Time cover. 

“We couldn’t comment on the decor at Trump Golf clubs one way or another,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee told the Post. 

Could Trump have intended the fake news cover as a lark, the way you might hang a goofy fake cover from the amusement park? 

Fahrenthold doesn't seem to think so: 

The cover seems to fit a broader pattern for Trump, who has often boasted of his appearances on Time’s cover and adorned his Trump Tower office with images of himself from magazines and newspapers. Trump has made claims about himself — about his charitable giving, his business success, even the size of the crowd at his inauguration — that are not supported by the facts.