President Donald Trump’s new Time magazine cover has drawn a “chilling” similarity to a historic Nazi image, according to a recent report.
The portrait of Trump, released online Friday ahead of the print version, shows him seated behind his Oval Office desk, leaning forward with his hands under his chin in what has been described as “a power pose that obscures his often bruised right hand and his loose neck skin,” according to The Daily Beast. Above the image, the headline reads “TRUMP’S WORLD.” The photograph was taken by Washington-based photographer Steven Voss.
This new cover follows Trump’s harsh response to a previous Time cover that showed him from a low angle, highlighting his neck. Although the 79-year-old former president has yet to share his thoughts on the new image, his chief communications officer, Steven Cheung, expressed approval. Writing on X, Cheung simply posted, “TRUMP’S WORLD.”
However, The Daily Beast reported that the composition of this new cover “owes its visual language to one of the most chilling portraits of the 20th century.”
The publication revealed that the image is inspired by Arnold Newman’s 1963 photograph of Alfred Krupp, the German industrialist and convicted Nazi war criminal. That portrait, published by Newsweek, is considered one of the most psychologically charged images ever produced for a weekly news magazine.
Arnold Newman, a Jewish photographer born in Manhattan in 1918, initially resisted taking the photo of Krupp due to ethical concerns. He later told American Photo magazine, “When the editors asked me to photograph him, I refused. I said, ‘I think of him as the devil.’ They said, ‘Fine—that’s what we think.’ So I was stuck with the job.”
When Newman finally photographed Krupp, he instructed him to lean forward and clasp his hands—a pose very similar to the one seen in the new Trump cover.
Steven Voss, who took the Trump photo, appears to have acknowledged the resemblance. He liked Instagram comments pointing out the likeness but has yet to make an official comment or statement regarding the similarity.
The striking parallel between these two images has sparked debate and drawn attention to the power of visual language in media portrayals of influential figures.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-time-cover/