These 3 Time Magazine Covers Perfectly Capture the Increasing Chaos Swirling Around Trump

“More tumult awaits.”

In the wake of highly publicized legal controversies regarding two close former associates of President Donald Trump earlier this week​, Time Magazine released Thursday the latest in a series of covers artistically rendering Trump’s time in office.

Time’s progression of covers highlight the increasing chaos surrounding the president.

Cover 1: The first cover in this progression, titled “​Nothing To See Here,” was published in a February-March 2017 double issue, ​seeking to visually portray the mood of Trump’s first month in the White House.

“For two years, Donald Trump mastered the art of disruption. Name a political precept and he probably broke it during his improbable march to the White House,” Philip Elliot of Time wrote. “But disruption in government–the rulemaker breaking the rules–turns out to be more costly.”

Controversy during this time included federal judges halting ​Trump’s Muslim ban, the firing of Michael Flynn and potential ​campaign ties to Russia, protests, the list goes on.

“Ultimately, Trump is the only person who can calm the storm, fan it further or just let the show go on,” Elliot said. “If anything is clear, it is that the drama will not soon end…without a clear change in correction, more tumult awaits.”

Cover 2: The second cover, titled “​Stormy,” was published in late April of this year and highlighted the FBI’s raids on Michael Cohen’s office, home, and hotel room. Trump called the raids “disgraceful” and “an attack on our country.”

​The raids were partly related to dealings between Cohen and two women alleged to have relationships with Trump. Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and longtime fixer, arranged payments to ​pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. He’s also alleged to have brokered a deal with American Media Inc. to purchase the rights to a story about former Playmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have an affair with Trump.

“Since the night of Nov. 8, 2016, Trump’s political and philosophical opponents have been publicly and repeatedly asking, How long can this last,” Brian Bennett of Time wrote. “Skilled as Trump has been at deploying suspense, misdirection and invective to his advantage over the last 15 months, the Trump reality show appears closer than ever to colliding with reality itself.”

Cover 3: The third cover, released Thursday and titled “In Deep,” depicts the extraordinary legal and political turmoil that appears to have swirled around Trump this week.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, was convicted on eight of 18 counts of tax fraud on Tuesday. The same day, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including two campaign finance charges.

Cohen directly implicated the president in his plea, claiming that he had been directed by then-candidate Trump to arrange payments to silence Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal on their alleged affairs with Trump.

“The courtroom drama brought all the President’s legal and political problems together in a single supernova,” Bennett wrote. “It highlighted Trump’s sordid history with women, his willingness to blur the lines between business and politics, and growing fallout from the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.”

“It was arguably the most pivotal day in this presidency,” he added, “and the consequences are only beginning to kick in.”

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Brian Edsall

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