Fake cover of Trump discovered

The framed copy of Time magazine was hung up in at least five of President Donald Trump’s clubs, from South Florida to Scotland. Filling the entire cover was a photo of Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump: The ‘Apprentice’ is a television smash!” the big headline said. Above the Time nameplate, there was another headline in all caps: “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS . . . EVEN TV!”

This cover — dated March 1, 2009 — looks like an impressive memento from Trump’s pre-presidential career. To club members eating lunch, or golfers waiting for a pro-shop purchase, it seemed to be a signal that even when he was just a reality-TV star, Trump was the kind of star who got a cover story in Time.

But the Time cover is a fake.

There was no March 1, 2009, issue of Time magazine. And there was no issue at all in 2009 that had Trump on the cover.

And it has two exclamation points. Time headlines don’t yell.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Time said the magazine had asked the Trump Organization to remove the phony cover from the walls where it is on display.

So how did Trump, who constantly accuses the mainstream media of producing “fake news,” wind up decorating his properties with a piece of phony journalism?

The Trump Organization did not respond to questions. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say whether Trump knew the cover wasn’t real.