Stark Difference Between Trump’s 2016 and 2024 Time Magazine Covers Proves He’s Won the Culture

December 17, 2024 Mark Wolf US 0

In every way that one measures conquest, both tangible and intangible, President-elect Donald Trump has conquered his enemies.

Moreover, Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, though resounding, pales in comparison to his conquest of the culture.

The latest illustration of this cultural conquest appeared last week, when Time Magazine named him “Person of the Year.”

In fact, side-by-side photos of Trump on the magazine’s cover in 2024 and 2016 — the last time he received Time’s “Person of the Year” distinction — showed that more than eight years of demonization at the hands of the establishment media has left the president-elect looking stronger than ever.

“The vibe shift is here,” one person wrote Thursday on the social media platform X.

That same X user also noted that a “markedly more aspirational photo in the 2024 version says it all.” The 2016 cover featured a “subtle dig” at Trump as he prepared to lead the “Divided States of America.”

Another X user called the cover comparison a “testament to how far Trump has come and how thoroughly he has defeated his enemies.”

Furthermore, the 2016 cover looked much darker, and the magazine title appeared in blood-red letters. In fact, the “M” in “TIME,” situated above Trump’s head, gave the appearance of a devil’s horns.

By contrast, the 2024 cover features a much lighter background. The president-elect appears to have an aura of soft white light. And his posture, though still commanding, looks more statesmanlike and less menacing.

In August, Time Magazine joined the establishment media’s propaganda campaign on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Related:

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The outlet, therefore, seemed an unlikely venue for showcasing Trump’s cultural conquest.

Then again, one cannot deny that the culture — that amorphous assortment of ideas and behaviors that define a society’s moral, intellectual and spiritual qualities, as well as its trajectory — has shifted dramatically in Trump’s direction. One sees signs of it everywhere.

For instance, videos of athletes and others doing the “Trump dance” have gone viral on social media platforms.

Likewise, some of the president-elect’s antagonists have even paid him homage.

“Donald Trump is not an idiot,” CNN’s Van Jones said last week to an interviewer who wondered aloud how Trump managed to reshape the culture. “Donald Trump — let me just be very clear — Donald Trump is smarter than me, you and all of his critics.”

Jones later described Trump as a “phenomenon” whose critics “look like idiots to ordinary people.”

Meanwhile, in another sign of cultural conquest, some leftists or left-leaning figures have experienced awakenings.

“My big issue is that I’m really, really sick and tired of every time I turn around finding something else that the Democrats have lied about or downplayed or misrepresented along the way,” veteran sports writer and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith said last week on his podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” referring specifically to the report of the FBI’s involvement in the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021.

Likewise, in clips posted to X both before and since the election, Ana Kasparian of the progressive podcast “The Young Turks” has blasted the woke left for its obsession with identity and chastised herself as an “idiot” for trusting the establishment media narrative denying the existing of a migrant crisis.

Of course, Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster of all, endorsed Trump shortly before the election.

Thus, evidence of a massive cultural shift appears everywhere.

What accounts for that shift?

Three factors stand out above all.

First, X owner Elon Musk’s decision to purchase Twitter and transform it into a free-speech sanctuary made all the difference.

Second, speaking of Musk, the team around Trump consists of superhero-like figures who joined the president-elect because they love freedom.

In fact, one of the greatest campaign ads in history featured not only Trump and Musk but also J.D. Vance, the vice president-elect; Tulsi Gabbard, nominee for director of National Intelligence; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services; Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s vice-presidential running mate prior to joining forces with Trump; and Vivek Ramaswamy, tapped to join Musk in destroying the federal bureaucracy through the “Department of Government Efficiency.”

The 146-second ad featured iconic moments from the 2024 campaign, including Trump’s appearances as a McDonald’s fry cook and in the passenger seat of a garbage truck.

Note that Rogan and journalist Tucker Carlson also appeared in the ad.

In fact, the untethering of talented conservative voices like Carlson and Megyn Kelly from their former establishment media employers has also bolstered pro-Trump conservatism in the podcasting world.

Note, too, that Trump himself only spoke at the beginning and end of the ad.

In other words, Trump’s strength grew in proportion to the emergence of his formidable allies.

Third — and by far most important — Trump himself overcame immeasurable odds.

As impressive as his allies are, it is easy to forget that on July 13 — the day of the first assassination attempt against him — Trump still stood effectively alone.

Then, after a bullet grazed his ear, he stood up, blood streaming down his face, and yelled “Fight! Fight! Fight!” to his trauma-stricken supporters.

Scenes of that kind tend to unfold only in fiction.

Indeed, perhaps the only recent and comparable example occurred in Marvel Studios’ 2019 blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame.”

Recall the climactic scene in which a battered and exhausted Captain America stood poised to take on the evil villain Thanos and his entire interstellar army. Readers unfamiliar with the film may view a short clip of the scene below.

When comparable scenes unfold in real life, the person who exhibits defiant courage transforms into an icon.

After the July 13 assassination attempt, Musk immediately endorsed the man whose courage left him in awe. Two days later, Trump announced Vance as his running mate. Kennedy and Gabbard formally allied with Trump in August.

In the end, however, it was Trump alone who ensured that his name would go into history not simply for leading a political movement or serving as president but for showing bold defiance toward the powerful villains who repeatedly persecuted him. If the American experiment survives and thrives as we now have reason to expect, then posterity will remember Trump’s name as we now remember George Washington, Joan of Arc, or Charlemagne.

Thus, Time Magazine’s glowing cover merely confirmed the president-elect’s remarkable cultural conquest, which has made him a transcendent figure.

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Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.

Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.

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