Gavin Newsom “improved” the TIME magazine cover of Donald Trump that upset the president by touching up what some might call the most unflattering aspect of the image: Trump’s neck.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Governor Newsom Press Office X account posted an edited version of Trump’s TIME cover that blurred out Trump’s neck.
The loose skin on Trump’s neck has long been a subject of ribald jokes online, with commenters making countless memes suggesting the neck resembles genitalia.
The post came after a mini-controversy caused by Trump’s displeasure with TIME’s cover photo.
On Monday, TIME magazine published a flattering story praising how Trump, 79, achieved a peace plan in the Israel/Hamas conflict with the help of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. A low-angle photograph of Trump graces the magazine’s cover, with the president standing in front of the sun.
In a late-night Truth Social rant, Trump called the picture the “Worst of All Time” and bemoaned how the cover image “disappeared” his hair. He also observed “something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one.”
The picture so offended the president that his sycophants ran to X to doctor up more flattering cover images. For example, Kari Lake, the acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, posted a more heroic-looking photoshop of Trump that made the president appear skinnier and less wrinkled. She encouraged her followers to share the image instead.
Like many media organizations, TIME has long been a subject of Trump’s frustration. The publication has featured many unflattering Trump photos in the past, including drawings of Trump literally melting and Trump menacingly looking down at a crying toddler.
TIME even had to intervene to get Trump to take down a fake cover dated March 1, 2009 with the headline “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS… EVEN TV!” In 2017, The Washington Post reported that the fake cover was framed and hung in at least five of Trump’s golf clubs.
That same year saw Trump throw a brief tantrum for not being named the magazine’s Person of the Year (he won the award in 2024).
Newsom’s edit job was just one of the swings his X account took at Trump and the administration on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, it roasted Eric Trump promoting his book signing in an empty Barnes and Noble.
“The Government is shut down, people are getting laid off, health care is becoming more expensive and the ‘ruling’ family is out promoting their next grift,” the account wrote.
The Government is shut down, people are getting laid off, health care is becoming more expensive and the “ruling” family is out promoting their next grift. https://t.co/DZAKMpqBEo
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) October 14, 2025
Prior to that, the account photoshopped a beard onto a cut of ham as a joke at embattled border czar Tom Homan.
In addition to trolling Trump, Newsom, 58, gained an important ally in one of his signature initiatives on Tuesday. Former President Barack Obama supported California’s Prop 50, an initiative that would give California more blue districts, combatting red state gerrymandering attempts to stuff more Republicans in Congress.
The post Gavin Newsom Trolls Trump With Touch-Up of TIME Cover Photo appeared first on The Daily Beast.
