‘Wildly disrespectful’. ‘Did both parties give consent?’. ‘Was no one else in the room when this got approved?’. ‘I am not prudish but good grief’.
These are some of the many reactions to New York Magazine’s new cover of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, both standing on weighing scales in nothing but white underwear.
‘And now, Biden has Covid,’ NYMag captioned the image on Instagram on Wednesday evening, hours after the US President tested positive for the virus at an even in Las Vegas.
The post continued: ‘Catch up on our new Health Issue, featuring medical breakthroughs and scandals, plus one political convulsion: the president’s seeming deterioration.’
It may feature the latest medical breakthroughs for cancer and mammograms. But most don’t seem to care about what’s inside – they can’t get past what is on the front.
On the cover, Trump and Biden are depicted in a state no one expects to see them. The former President has even been given tan lines on his arms and neck.
The computer generated image is an open dig at the health of the ageing candidates themselves, an issue which has become the cornerstone of the 2024 election campaign.
President Biden is now 81, while Trump turned 78 in June.
It has already been a tumultuous campaign for both the Democrat and the Republican, long before this controversial cover.
On Saturday, the world was rocked by an assassination attempt on Trump’s life during a rally at an outdoor venue in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire from the roof of a building outside the security zone.
One shot grazed the former President’s ear, while another killed 50-year-old father Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family in the audience.
A new 3D model has revealed how the bullet would have struck Trump’s skull had he not turned in the last moment.
Biden’s campaign has also shifted focus on his health since the White House confirmed he has contracted Covid.
While the President is both vaccinated and boosted, and is said to be experiencing mild symptoms, his age puts him at a greater risk.
He is returning to Delaware to isolate while he recovers and has received a first dose of the antiviral Paxlovid, according to his doctor.
But it is not the lack of sensitivity around the timing of the publication that seems to have shocked people – it’s the cover itself.
And people did not hold back in their responses.
Alencia Johnson wrote: ‘What a disgusting decision to make this a cover. We can now point to the media’s contribution of making the US a joke to the world.’
Gillian Manning responded: ‘I would just like to note that if a publication had photoshopped a woman’s head onto a body in underwear and posted it then the comments would be different. This is such a weird thing to do to anyone.’
Meanwhile, Elly Shepley pointed to the precedent the cover was setting if AI had been used to create Biden and Trump’s nude bodies.
She wrote: ‘This is wildly disrespectful, I can only assume was done with AI and makes me worried for the precedent set here. Did both parties give consent?’
Nadia Rahman added: ‘This is wildly disrespectful, I can only assume was done with AI and makes me worried for the precedent set here. Did both parties give consent?’
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