In November, Time magazine published a cover image of U.S. President Donald Trump with an “I Voted” sticker on his mouth, appearing to silence him.
After the Democratic Party’s sweeping victory in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, a rumor spread that Time magazine had published a cover with a black-and-white photograph of Republican U.S. President Donald Trump with a sticker on his mouth that read “I Voted” and included the illustration of a U.S. flag.
The supposed magazine cover spread across social media, including on Facebook and Reddit. One X post read “TIME Magazine unveils new cover” (archived):
Several Snopes readers searched the website and emailed us seeking to confirm the claim was true.
The image is real; Time published it as the cover of its Nov. 23 issue.
The magazine’s Instagram account shared the cover on Nov. 4, the day of the midterm elections (archived):
The caption read, in part (emphasis ours):
If Democrats had spent much of President Donald Trump’s second term searching for a way to break his grip on Washington, voters had now handed them one. The midterms generated a blue wave that swept Republicans out of power in the House and the Senate, reversing the party’s fortunes just two years after Trump’s return to the White House. The results amounted to a decisive rebuke of a President whose handling of the economy, rising prices, and the war with Iran had fueled widespread discontent, and who spent the closing days of the campaign musing about candidates’ anatomy and dismissing Americans’ concerns over their bottom line.
Time also shared the image on its X account (archived) and its website, in a cover story analyzing the outcome of the elections (archived) and outlining the path ahead for Democrats.
The image appeared to suggest that voters in the U.S. had handed a definitive loss to Trump and his camp after two years of brash rhetoric and policies that resulted in the opposite of what his supporters believed he and his allies had promised, including an end to wars and more affordable cost of living.
According to Time, Trump has appeared on the cover of the magazine more times than anyone else.
For further reading, Snopes has verified other covers of Time, including a cover it titled “The Transgender Tipping Point” in 2014.
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