US President Donald Trump's leading lawyer for the federal investigation into Russian collusion resigned on Thursday.
Attorney John Dowd was the lead negotiator between special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and the White House. However, local media reported that he had grown frustrated with Trump for not heeding his advice with regards to the probe.
Trump on Thursday said he "would like to" testify before Mueller, a former FBI director, and his team shortly after Dowd resigned.
Prior to his resignation, Dowd had reportedly been in talks with Mueller's investigation, but had not yet determined whether the Trump would be available to testify.
Read more: What Mueller's indictments of former Trump campaign officials mean for the president
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
The new statesman
This cover from the end of 2016 most likely pleased the newly elected US president. Time magazine picked Donald Trump as Person of the Year, a title that was also once given to Konrad Adenauer, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King — as well as Hitler and Stalin. The annual end-of-year feature picks someone who, "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year."
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
With a Hitler mustache
Even before Trump's election, the Mexican magazine Letras Libres made its opinion on Trump absolutely clear, using the words "American fascist" to form a Hitler mustache on his portrait. Building a wall on the US-Mexico border and clamping down on Mexican immigrants were some of Trump's electoral promises.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Walling in
Two weeks after Donald Trump's election, the New Yorker creatively commented on the president's border wall project. From subtle to explicitly insensitive depictions, international magazine covers featured a broad range of styles while commenting on Trump's policies throughout the year.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
A rhetorical question
Renowned for its confrontational style, Charlie Hebdo also took on the newly elected US president. In a depiction referring to Trump's infamous "grab women by the pussy" comments, the November 16, 2016, issue asked: "Did we have to entrust him with the nuclear button?"
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
The prescience of the Simpsons
Donald Trump as US president: What was supposed to be a joke in The Simpsons turned out to be true 16 years later. British tabloid The Sun referred to the sitcom's prophecy on its cover, showing Homer shocked by the turn of events, reacting with his catchphrase, "D'oh!"
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
American psycho
The center-left French newspaper Libération reacted to the election with biting sarcasm. The headline was borrowed from a Bret Easton Ellis novel, "American Psycho." Its narrator and main character, Patrick Bateman, is rich, superficial and narcissistic. There are numerous parallels to be drawn with the US president — but the fictional character is also a serial killer.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Nothing to see here
Some commentators hoped Trump would soften the tone he used during his campaign once he took office. On this Time magazine cover, illustrator Tim O'Brien used fine paintbrush strokes to depict Trump's chaotic first weeks in the White House.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
At the wheel
After Trump's inauguration, the New Yorker commented on the childish behavior of the man who would from then on be steering the country. "Every so often, you hear stories on the news about a toddler who somehow manages to start the family car and drive the vehicle across town, where the law finally apprehends him," said the artist behind the cover, Barry Blitt.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
An insurgent in the White House
The British weekly The Economist was inspired by Banksy's famous artwork of a rioter throwing flowers for last February's issue. It reacted to Trump's first weeks in office, when he "lobbed the first Molotov cocktail of policies and executive orders against the capital's brilliant-white porticos," wrote the magazine's editor, adding, "With Trump, chaos seems to be part of the plan."
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Beheading freedom
A cartoon figure of Trump holding a bloodied knife and the Statue of Liberty's head: The cover of German weekly Der Spiegel made headlines worldwide. It reacted to Trump's "America First" policy and his threats to democracy, including his executive order to bar people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. The cover divided opinions within the country and abroad.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Take your kids to work every day
It's both a challenge and a goldmine for satirists: Trump's politics and habits are often more bizarre than satire itself. On this cover, Mad magazine commented on the White House role given to the president's daughter Ivanka and to his son-in-law and presidential adviser, Jared Kushner, who was morphed into the traits of the magazine's iconic mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
The mouthpiece of white supremacists
After a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a participant drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring 19 people. Trump then declared that there were "very fine people" marching with the white supremacists that day, a comment which drew praise from former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke. The Economist reacted with this cover.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Tailwind from the president
Following the Charlottesville rally events, The New Yorker also took aim at Trump's remarks equating neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan to the counter-protesters. "President Trump's weak pushback to hate groups — as if he was trying not to alienate them as voters — compelled me to take up my pen," said artist David Plunkert of his cover, entitled "Blowhard."
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Breaking a taboo: a Hitler comparison
The German weekly Stern went one step further by unsubtly portraying Trump draped in the American flag and giving a Nazi salute. The cover story was headlined "Sein Kampf," (His Struggle), a play on Adolf Hitler's infamous "Mein Kampf" book. It drew sharp criticism from the Central Council of Jews for belittling Hitler's crimes. Misappropriating Nazi symbols is taboo in Germany.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Lazy boy
In early August, Newsweek magazine depicted Trump as a fast food-eating, bored TV junkie — descriptions also found in the book "Fire and Fury." Headlined "LAZY BOY: Donald Trump is bored and tired. Imagine how bad he'd feel if he did any work," the issue also pointed out that during his six months in office, he had spent 40 days at golf clubs, but had seen zero pieces of major legislation passed.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
A prominent phony
Trump likes to describe any media criticizing him as " fake news," but he's also renowned for his own twisting of the truth. This fake Time magazine cover praising Trump's TV show "The Apprentice" in 2009 was framed and on prominent display in at least five of his golf clubs. When the story came out last June, it felt like the perfect embodiment of Trump's narcissism and lies.
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President Trump's first year on magazine covers
Russian bride of the year
Twitter went wild after the fake Time magazine cover story came out. Thousands of memes poking fun at Trump were created using the magazine's iconic template. This one photoshopped the Person of the Year issue to turn Donald Trump into the "Russian bride of the Year," commenting on Trump's questionable Russian ties.
Author: Torsten Landsberg (eg)
'No collusion'
Last week, Trump took to Twitter to decry the probe, saying Mueller's team had been stacked with "13 hardened Democrats."
"The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime," Trump said in a tweet. "It was based on fraudulent activities."
'Dowd is a friend'
According to The New York Times, Trump was pleased with Dowd's decision to resign, saying he was angered by the attorney's decision to call for Mueller to ends it probe last weekend.
"John Dowd is a friend and has been a valuable member of our legal team. We will continue our ongoing representation of the president and our cooperation with the Office of Special Counsel," said Jay Sekulow, another one of Trump's lawyers.
Mueller is looking at Trump's trip to Moscow to host the Miss Universe pageant
Closer to Trump
Mueller's investigation has increasingly focused on Trump's inner circle in the White House as well as his various business associates. Earlier this month, Mueller delivered a subpoena to the Trump Organization, requesting material related to Trump's businesses, especially those with Russian links.
Read more: Deutsche Bank 'expects to face Trump-Russia probe'
The probe is also scrutinizing Trump's 2013 trip to the Russian capital Moscow to host the Miss Universe pageant. He reportedly collected $20 million (€16.3 million) for his fee. The investigation has also looked into whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice.
ls/kl (AFP, AP, Reuters)
