'Time' Put Trump On Their Cover Again, But He's Probably Not Going To Like This One
President Donald Trump loves positive press. He isn't likely to get much for awhile. The process of separating parents from their children as prosecutors prepare legal cases against them is a cruel one, and it has come under fire by critics of the Trump administration for being unnecessary and harsh. And then, as Time does each week, it published its latest magazine cover in response to the controversy. These tweets about Trump's immigration Time cover probably won't make him happy.
If you've been following the discussion on social media, you'll have noticed that outrage began to mount last week when MSNBC journalist Jacob Soboroff tweeted an inside look at one of the facilities housing unaccompanied migrant children on June 13. Other journalists were allowed into detention centers across the southern border over the weekend, prompting more outcry, as details of the prison-like conditions emerged, per Politico.
One of many viral photos that made the rounds, was of a young girl as she was separated from her mother. Photographer John Moore of Getty Images snapped the shot before the child was detained, along with her mother, after crossing the border illegally. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed on Tuesday afternoon to USA Today that the mother and child are together.) This photo of the young girl was the one that Time chose to single out on its cover, edited to appear next to Trump — as if Trump made her upset.
On Wednesday, June 20, Trump signed an executive order that included language about prioritizing keeping families together. Trump told reporters as he signed the executive order,
It's about keeping families together, while at the same time being sure that we have a very powerful very strong border, and border security will be equal if not greater than previously ... I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated. It's a problem that's gone on for many years, as you know, through many administrations. And we're working very hard on immigration, it's just been left out in the cold. People haven't dealt with it, and we are dealing with it.
For those children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S. border — somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000, according to published reports — the damage is already done, though, placing them at risk for long-term health side effects associated with the trauma.
Seeming increasingly hostile in light of the difficult-to-witness cruelty playing out in the news, Twitter users took a victory lap with the release of Time's new cover, which many felt encapsulated the frustration of the state of the border crisis.
If Time's intention was to make Trump feel something with the cover, it looks like they might have failed. The president again doubled down on his false claim that Democrats are to blame for the border crisis in remarks to the press at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, June 21. Trump said,
Loopholes in our immigration laws all supported by extremist open-border Democrats — and that's what they are, they're extremist open-border Democrats. If you look at Nancy Pelosi and you look at Chuck Schumer, you'll see tapes where they wanted to have borders. They needed borders for security, just a short while ago, a number of years ago. I see Chuck Schumer: 'We must have borders.' Hillary Clinton: 'We must have borders. If people penetrate our borders we must get them out of our country.' Now, all of the sudden they're big open-border people. It's a whole big con job. In the meantime people are suffering because of the Democrats.
Doesn't exactly sound like a guy who has any clue what's going on, how incredibly complicated the situation is, and that it's been worsened by his own policies — but hey, that's just me. At least Trump finally has an authentic Time cover worthy of the walls at any of his country clubs. Good for him.
