Elon Musk Featured on TIME Magazine Cover, Trump Responds
TIME magazine’s February 24, 2025 cover features tech billionaire Elon Musk seated at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. The print edition positions the Tesla and SpaceX CEO between an American flag and a presidential flag, holding a coffee cup in his left hand.
The accompanying feature, “Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington,” delves into Musk’s efforts to reform the federal government since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Musk, heading Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been instrumental in these reforms.
President Trump responded to the cover on Friday, stating, “No… Is TIME Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that.” This comes two months after the publication named Trump ‘Person of the Year’ for the second time.
Musk’s appointment as a ‘special government employee’ and head of DOGE under the Trump administration has placed him among the president’s chief advisers. In November, he co-wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal outlining plans for significant budget cuts. Musk proposed hiring a team to bring about “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy.”
DOGE aims to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget by 2026. This month, the department claimed it had saved over $1 billion by eliminating contracts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Following his inauguration, Trump signed executive orders terminating these initiatives.
Previously, DOGE reported slashing daily federal spending by around $1 billion as of January 29, demonstrating its commitment to fiscal efficiency under Musk’s leadership.