Fabricated image shared to claim TIME magazine declared Trump ‘Man of the Ear’

What is the claim?

Days after the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, social media users have shared an image claiming that the TIME magazine has published a cover with the Republican presidential candidates’s photo and called him the 'Man of the Ear'. 

Referring to his ear injury after the incident, a social media user shared the image and wrote, "Donald Trump finally got his lifelong wish. He finally got the ear of the editors of TIME magazine and made the front cover." Archive links to this and other such posts can be found here and here.

Screenshot of the viral social media posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this is a fake image. TIME magazine has not published any cover declaring Trump ‘Man of the Ear’.

What are the facts?

On going through the TIME magazine website and the collections page, we found no such cover published in 2024. Even a page dedicated to covers featuring Trump did not show any such results.

The last cover of the magazine visible on the website carried a photo of Melinda French Gates and was published on July 15, 2024.

Earlier on June 24, 2024, the magazine's cover story was about Trump but that carried a picture of a gavel and not the former president. Another cover was published on May 27, 2024, before the assasination attempt, with the title “How Far Trump Would Go." 

The upcoming edition of TIME magazine cover featuring Trump is to be released on August 5, 2024. It is available for pre-order, and the magazine shared the cover on X with the caption  "TIME's new cover: Donald Trump survives shooting with nation on edge (archived here)." The image featured is of Trump from just after the incident and the headline of the cover is “Attack on Trump: Former president survives attack with nation on edge”.

Screenshot of the cover. (Source: TIME Website /Screenshot)

On Instagram (archived here), TIME shared a photo of the cover, with a blurb from an interview with The Associated Press photo journalist Evan Vucci about how he captured the image of Trump immediately after the shooting.

Further, we noted that the viral images had a logo in the bottom right corner, which reads ‘@GRANDOLDMEMES’. This indicated that the image had likely originated from a meme page.

Image of the logo on the viral images.(Source:X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Taking a cue from this, we tracked down an account with this handle called ‘The Right to Bear Memes’ and found that the image was shared on July 17, 2024 without a caption. However, a cursory look at the profile reveals that it regularly shares memes about Trump, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. We also found a website associated with this account that features several such edited images, including similar covers of TIME magazine. 

Logically Facts has reached out to the website for a comment and the story will be updated if and when we receive a response.

How to spot a fake TIME cover

In 2019, TIME had published a report on "How To Spot a Fake TIME Cover," in which they provide pointers to one to check for a fake cover.

In the viral image, we can note that both the edition date and the website ID are missing. Further, as mentioned by TIME, the magazine always keeps square corners and a white border before the thicker red corner. However, the viral image has rounded corners on the red border and is missing the inner white border. 

Highlights of the comparison of the viral image with an original cover published by TIME. (Source: X/TIME website/Modified by Logically Facts ) 

Comparison of the viral image with an original cover published by TIME. (Source: X/TIME website/Modified by Logically Facts ) 

The verdict

The viral image, purportedly showing Trump with his bandaged ear on the cover of TIME magazine is fake. The TIME magazine website displays no such cover and there are several discrepancies to prove that it is fake.