Trump and Pelosi battle it out on Time's latest cover

A post shared by TIME (@time) on Jan 10, 2019 at 5:46am PST In times of intractable national political crisis, at least the media junkies among us have a few things to look forward to: seeing how our leading tabloid newspapers address the drama day-in and day-out, the "Saturday Night Live" cold open, and whatever Time magazine does with its cover. For its Jan. 21 issue, on newsstands tomorrow, Time gives the showdown over President Trump's border wall the cartoon treatment it deserves, with Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi engaged in a pointless battle involving a slingshot, a trebuchet, wads of crumpled-up paper and tweets. The illustration by Jason Seiler has been animated for social media (above) and teases an essay by Molly Ball titled "Trump and Pelosi Are Locked in Their First Battle. Neither Can Afford to Lose." Ball writes, in part, Trump has, after two years of distraction and delay, finally called the question of his signature policy promise, a wall on the southern border, which he insists must be a literal barrier made of concrete or steel. The wall is unpopular with the public and disdained by experts on both sides of the immigration debate. But the President is obsessed with playing to his hard-core base of supporters–and with his own self-image as a dominant alpha male–and caving would be an epic humiliation that could render him a premature lame duck and weaken his position ahead of a tough re-election campaign. Trump has been, if you will, pushed to the wall. Keep reading here. Here's the full print version of the cover:

Trump and Pelosi battle it out on Time's latest cover

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