Although Donald Trump has repeatedly appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in the last year, the company is asking that a framed cover image of Trump be taken down from the walls of several golf clubs.
That's because the cover hanging in several Trump Organization clubs is a phony, a Time spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.
The March 1, 2009, cover was first identified as fake by The Washington Post in a story published on Tuesday, and several markers give away that the cover isn’t genuine.
The magazine's red border is thinner on the Trump cover than a real cover and is missing a thin, white border on the inside of the red. A barcode in the right-hand corner is the same as a design tutorial created by a Peruvian designer, according to the Post.
Headlines on a real cover appear across the top of the page. The fake cover’s headlines appear down the right side.
Another factor complicating the authenticity of the Trump cover — Time didn’t publish a March 1, 2009, cover, according to the Post. It published a cover featuring actress Kate Winslet the following day.
On the mocked-up cover, which is framed and hung in some of the Trump golf clubs, according to the Post, Trump appears with arms crossed beneath a banner that reads, “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS … EVEN TV!”
In the lower left corner, beneath Trump’s name, a headline reads, “The ‘Apprentice’ is a television smash!"
Other headlines discuss real stories that appeared in the Kate Winslet issue, including a story about then-President Barack Obama’s plan for health care and another about global warming.
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It’s unclear who mocked up the fake cover and why, and it’s also not known if Trump himself was ever aware of the fake cover.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, who broke the story, said he had tallied seven locations where the cover was spotted as of Wednesday morning, and was continuing to look for additional sightings.
Scott Keeler, a photojournalist for the Tampa Bay Times, posted a photo on Twitter of the framed Time cover hung on the wall of Trump’s Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago.
Despite the fake cover, Trump has appeared on the front of the magazine several times. First, before he got into politics, Trump appeared on a 1989 cover holding an ace of diamonds next to his face.
The teaser read, “This man may turn you green with envy — or just turn you off. Flaunting it is the game, and Trump is the name.”
After announcing his campaign to become president and his election, Trump has appeared on the cover of Time in both photos and illustrations more than a dozen times.
