--- title: Donald Trump Truth: Behind 'Is Truth Dead?' Time Cover description: A story about Donald Trump recalls one of magazine's most famous covers canonical: https://time.com/4709920/donald-trump-truth-time-cover/ author: D.W. Pine article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-23T10:20:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:30.764Z article:section: Press Room og:title: Behind TIME's 'Is Truth Dead?' Cover og:description: A story about Donald Trump recalls one of magazine's most famous covers og:url: https://time.com/4709920/donald-trump-truth-time-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38633df49982b066/6988bf7d4dd215fe98efe396/truth-covers-diptych-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: truth-covers-diptych-3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Behind TIME's 'Is Truth Dead?' Cover twitter:description: A story about Donald Trump recalls one of magazine's most famous covers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38633df49982b066/6988bf7d4dd215fe98efe396/truth-covers-diptych-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Is Truth Dead? Behind the TIME Cover > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: If You’re Angry About Taxes, Here’s Who To Blame Money [Watch (HLS stream): If You’re Angry About Taxes, Here’s Who To Blame Money](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aUuMVGrI.m3u8) (0:54)  _Published 2017-02-13. Here's the president who started what we dread most, taxes._  by [D.W. Pine](https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/)  ## D.W. Pine Pine is the Creative Director at TIME. Mar 23, 2017 10:20 AM UTC   by [D.W. Pine](https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/)  ## D.W. Pine Pine is the Creative Director at TIME. Mar 23, 2017 10:20 AM UTC To illustrate [this week’s cover story](http://time.com/magazine) on President Trump and the truth, we took inspiration from one of [the most iconic covers in TIME’s history](http://time.com/isgoddead/). Set on a stark black field and inside the red border, the headline “Is Truth Dead?” is a typographical homage to our “Is God Dead?” cover from April 8, 1966. That famous issue was the first TIME cover to appear without any image—a span of more than 40 years since TIME’s founding in 1923\. Not that [Time’s editor Otto Fuerbringer](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/30fuerbringer.html) didn’t have any visual options available—from classic works of religious art to contemporary paintings like [Abraham Rattner’s Window Cleaner](http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=20561) to a commissioned collage by [pop artist Larry Rivers](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,909835,00.html). But in the end as Time Inc. founder Henry Luce wrote in a letter to Fuerbringer, “the only artist who could paint a portrait of God is God.” So type only it was. “The \[Is God Dead?\] cover concept is breathtakingly simple and effective,” said Pentagram partner Luke Hayman, who was instrumental in producing TIME’s redesign in 2007\. “It is typographically under-designed, yet the red type appearing through the full rectangle of black gives full impact and gravitas to the provocative (and for many, shocking) question.” (Some readers had a slightly different reaction to the story itself. “TIME’s story is biased, pro-atheist and pro-Communist, shocking and entirely un-America,” R.A. Ellsworth of Laguna Hills, Calif. wrote in a letter to the editor in April 1966\. Time Editor [Nancy Gibbs writes in this week’s magazine](http://time.com/4710615/when-a-president-cant-be-taken-at-his-word/) that just like many said they believed in God in 1966, many today “would say they believe in Truth, and yet we find ourselves having an intense debate over its role and power in the face of a President who treats it like a toy.”) The original typography used on the cover was based on Bodoni Poster, designed by Chauncey H. Griffith in 1929\. The bold contrasting strokes, strong verticality and easily recognizable serifs and ball terminals were perfectly suited for advertisements, posters and signs in the early 20th century. “It is no less ironic today than it was a half-century ago to use such brashness in a stark TIME setting to pose this timely and thought-provoking question,”says typographer Kent Lew, who developed the body copy typeface used in the magazine today. “A fitting homage.” In order to produce an exact rendition of the typeface for this week’s cover, [TIME graphic artist Lon Tweeten](http://time.com/author/lon-tweeten/) hand drew each letter form with fine precision, as we could find no modern type foundry which has an exact interpretation of the one used on the original cover. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4709920/donald-trump-truth-time-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4709920/donald-trump-truth-time-cover/"},"headline":"Is Truth Dead? 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