President Donald Trump is on TIME’s June cover. This cover was designed by Brooklyn-based artist, Tim O’Brien.
President Trump is on the June 18 cover of TIME, following the political attacks launched by the White House on Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
O’Brien, is a long-time TIME collaborator, O’Brien has had his work appear on over two dozens TIME covers since 1989, with subjects ranging from Pope Benedict XVI to Osama Bin Laden.
Here is O’Brien’s explanation:
“This portrait of Trump gazing into a mirror and seeing a king gets to the heart of how he and his legal team have approached this past week and the past 500 days, actually,” “Besides the usual challenge of the short deadline and making the image work, whether or not to have him looking at himself or looking at us was the thing I pondered most. His eye contact with each reader, each American fits the situation best.”
This is O’Brien’s fourth illustration of Trump for TIME’s cover since the president took office in January 2017. Two of his previous covers include scenes of the president facing rising water in the Oval office.
O’Brien also illustrated Trump’s tumultuous relationship with Washington in a March 2017 cover.
Outside of his 28-year relationship with TIME, O’Brien’s work has appeared in publications all over the world, including several U.S. postage stamps and book covers such as the popular Hunger Games trilogy.