--- title: TIME Cover: The Story Behind the 'Stormy' Donald Trump Art description: TIME's April 23, 2018 "Stormy" Donald Trump cover was reimagined by artist Tim O’Brien, who also painted the "Nothing to See Here" cover. canonical: https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/ author: Skye Gurney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-12T11:40:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:08.940Z article:section: Press Room og:title: The Story Behind TIME's 'Stormy' Donald Trump Cover og:description: There's a reason it looks so familiar og:url: https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff764f8d8e4e01a/69892d674ee2625e77311777/trumpstorm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Trump Storm covers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind TIME's 'Stormy' Donald Trump Cover twitter:description: There's a reason it looks so familiar twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff764f8d8e4e01a/69892d674ee2625e77311777/trumpstorm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Story Behind TIME's 'Stormy' Donald Trump Cover > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=57bd2a01-286e-481b-a637-b78cd1bee4a8&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Daily | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Tuesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Monday to Saturday (3x per week) | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=57bd2a01-286e-481b-a637-b78cd1bee4a8&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=57bd2a01-286e-481b-a637-b78cd1bee4a8&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (daily health), Worth Your Time (culture, twice weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Creating the "Nothing to See Here" Trump TIME Cover [Watch (HLS stream): Creating the "Nothing to See Here" Trump TIME Cover](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/f04o94Ah.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2017-02-15. Artist and illustrator Tim O'Brien takes us behind the cover of the 2/27/17 issue of Time Magazine._ by [Skye Gurney](https://time.com/author/skye-gurney/) and [D.W. Pine](https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/) Apr 12, 2018 11:40 AM UTC  Nothing to See Here, Feb. 27, 2017 Stormy, April, 23, 2018 Nothing to See Here, Feb. 27, 2017 Stormy, April, 23, 2018 Illustrations by Tim O'Brien for TIME by [Skye Gurney](https://time.com/author/skye-gurney/) and [D.W. Pine](https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/) Apr 12, 2018 11:40 AM UTC The [April 23 TIME cover](http://time.com/magazine), depicting the growing chaos within the Trump White House, may look familiar to some readers: We asked [longtime TIME collaborator Tim O’Brien](http://time.com/4672686/time-cover-trump-chaos/) to reimagine a cover he did for us just over a year ago. With his inventive style and fine hairline brush, Tim’s updated piece shows the rising water from the storms swirling inside the Oval Office. “When I painted the[ ‘Nothing to See Here’ cover art](http://time.com/4672686/time-cover-trump-chaos/), like many, I assumed the level of chaos could not last, that patriots on both sides of the aisle would step forward to control much of what transpired in the past year,” says O’Brien, a Brooklyn-based artist whose work has appeared on over two dozen TIME covers since 1989, covering subjects ranging from the Catholic church to Osama Bin Laden. “As the never-ending flood of breaking news washed over the White House, and the firings, the scandals and the general mayhem filled each news cycle, I felt the storm metaphor was as relevant as ever,” says O’Brien, who used air brush, pencil, gouache and oil paint to create the piece.” “I mostly thought about how water would fill the space, how it would be transparent in some areas and reflective in others.” **_Read more:_**[ See _every TIME magazine with Donald Trump on the cover_](http://time.com/5098069/donald-trump-time-magazine-covers/) Outside of his nearly 30-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. Two of his TIME magazine covers–one with Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and the other with the Grand Old Populists, both published in 1996—reside in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Aside from [TIME’s iconic “X” treatment,](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2069579,00.html) O’Brien’s cover this week is the sixth time in our 95-year history we designed covers that directly visually reference previous covers we have done. The first instance was in 1998 when TIME republished Roy Lichenstein’s painting of a gun 30 years after it was commissioned for a cover. TIME’s original cover story, [“The Gun in America,”](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,900177,00.html) with a memorable image by the Pop artist days after the murder of Robert Kennedy, and a couple months after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s. In 1998 on the 40th anniversary of that cover, TIME returned to the issue, prompted in part by a string of school shootings that began that year in Pearl, Miss.  The Gun in America," June 21, 1968; "The Gun in America," July 6, 1998 Illustration by Roy Lichtenstein, " In 2001, we called back a concept of [“The Incredibly Shrinking President”](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,975890,00.html) from 1993—both featuring a diminutive Bill Clinton. When a President leaves office we expect him to disappear for a while, cede the stage to his successor. In 2001, amid a new crop of scandals, the throw back cover was a take on how Clinton’s ex-presidency seemed to be a shriveled version of his presidency, including scandals involving $190,000 worth of going-away gifts, 177 last-minute clemencies (including notably the one he handed to fugitive billionaire Marc Rich.  The Incredible Shrinking President," June 7, 1993; "The Incredible Shrinking Ex-President," Feb. 26, 2001 Photographs: Steve Liss for TIME; Brigitte Stelzer-Gamma, " For Steven Brill’s award-winning series on medical bills, we updated the [“Bitter Pill”](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2136864,00.html) concept from 2013 for his second installment on Obamacare. When we created the image for the Dec 2, 2013 “Broken Promise” cover, it was apparent that Barack Obama’s foremost legislative accomplishment would not survive its first year intact and that the success of the President’s second term would depend on putting the pieces back together and mending the perceived “broken promises.”  Bitter Pill," March 4, 2013; "Obama Care," Jan. 19, 2015 Illustrations by Sean Freeman for TIME, " Graphic illustrator Edel Rodriguez created two iconic covers that played off each other, channeling President Trump in his a now instantly recognizable graphic style—”Meltdown” and [“Total Meltdown”](http://time.com/4528598/donald-trump-meltdown-cover/) (the latter winning an [ASME National Magazine Award for Best Cover of 2017](http://time.com/4664419/time-meltdown-best-cover/)).  Meltdown," Aug. 22, 2016; "Total Meltdown," Oct. 24, 2016 Illustrations by Edel Rodriguez for TIME, " And one of TIME’s most famous covers, [“Is God Dead?”](http://time.com/isgoddead/) from 1966, was reimagined as [“Is Truth Dead?” for our April 3, 2017 cover](http://time.com/4709920/donald-trump-truth-time-cover/). “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.”  "Is God Dead?," April 8, 1966; "Is Truth Dead?," April 3, 2017 ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The role that artists have, we reflect the time. We don't drive the news, we reflect what's going on and we try to think of visual analogies to make people understand, in this case, a level of chaos that's going on. And hopefully enlighten people. The assignment came in the form of an email from D. W. Pine. He asked if I could do some sketches of Trump in a storm. And I think the words I remember the most were chaos and wind. The first place I start in a portrait is usually the portrait itself. With this piece, there was desk that was gonna take a lot of time. And the items on the desk, but I really have to nail the portrait first. I'd rather run out of time working on a desk than working of the portrait. The most difficult part of doing a job like this, is not coming up with a concept or even finishing the piece. It's somewhere around 2 o'clock in the morning. When I'm starting to fade a little bit, and I have to get up and walk around and get myself awake again, to be able to finish it with the same kind of focus I had when I started. I don't even know how many Time covers I've done, I've done mostly portraits of interesting people. And I assumed with Trump that illustrators would have a lot of work to do, and I was right. When things are erratic and all over the place and unpredictable, it lends itself more to illustration. Illustration's really great at capturing the unknown, to make things that are out of the ordinary more understandable. [ MUSIC ] And so i hope, not just for me but for all the illustrators is, pay more illustration work and years for them, i would like to, things are kind of bit down though [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/"},"headline":"The Story Behind TIME's 'Stormy' Donald Trump Cover","datePublished":"2018-04-12T11:40:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:08.940Z","description":"'I felt the storm metaphor was as relevant as ever'","url":"https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff764f8d8e4e01a/69892d674ee2625e77311777/trumpstorm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Skye Gurney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/skye-gurney/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"D.W. Pine","jobTitle":"Pine is the Creative Director at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/d-w-pine/"}],"articleSection":"Press Room","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaff764f8d8e4e01a/69892d674ee2625e77311777/trumpstorm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Storm covers","caption":"Trump Storm covers","creditText":"Illustrations by Tim O'Brien for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/press-room/","name":"Press Room"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/","name":"The Story Behind TIME's 'Stormy' Donald Trump Cover"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Creating the \"Nothing to See Here\" Trump TIME Cover","description":"Artist and illustrator Tim O'Brien takes us behind the cover of the 2/27/17 issue of Time Magazine.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/f04o94Ah/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-02-15T23:31:46.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/f04o94Ah.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/","duration":"PT2M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5236647/donald-trump-stormy-time-cover/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```