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Viral image
Viral image
stated on September 18, 2020 in a Facebook post:

A Time magazine cover calls Donald Trump the “Worst. President. Ever.”

Pants on Fire!
By Ciara O'Rourke
September 21, 2020

A fake Donald Trump Time cover spreads on social media

If your time is short

  • This isn’t an authentic Time cover. 
 
See the sources for this fact-check

President Donald Trump has appeared on the cover of Time dozens of times, but a photo of him under the words “Worst. President. Ever” is not among them.

A post with an image of this cover was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

The fake cover story being shared on social media shows a doctored image of Trump with part of his face appearing as a skeleton. “How Donald Trump has disgraced the highest office in the nation,” it says, along with the words “divider,” “liar,” “rapist,” “thief,” “usurper,” “manipulator,” “collaborator” and “traitor.” 

Kristin Matzen, a spokesperson for Time, told us that the image in the Facebook post is not an authentic Time cover. 

We rate this post Pants on Fire.

 
Our Sources

Facebook post, Sept. 18, 2020

Time, The story behind President Donald Trump’s 29th Time cover, June 20, 2019

Email interview with Kristin Matzen, communications director, Time, Sept. 21, 2020

 

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