Ed Sheeran considers Taylor Swift a close friend and counts the number of streams of his songs in the billions. His latest album, “Divide,” is expected to be a massive hit, with Sheeran himself projecting 20 million units sold.

In other words, he’s the hottest thing in music today and he currently graces the cover of both British GQ and Rolling Stone. If you really wanted to bone up on Sheeran and sound smart in front of your kids — or at work in front of colleagues — which is the better buy?

GQ’s George Chesterton writes a story that comes off more like a puffy, glad-handing bit of public relations than an honest feature. The 26-year-old Sheeran used to sing at open mic nights — something no other artist has apparently ever done — and slept outside once or twice, we are told. In Chesterton’s cataracted view, that makes Sheeran “the de facto voice of a generation” who represents “authenticity, realness, earnestness, sincerity.” And how is that expressed? Through spreadsheets, sales figures and an intense desire to sell more albums than Adele.

“In so many ways he is like everyone else,” we are told. Don’t hold your breath for a check in the mail, Chesterton! He played you like a guitar!

In Rolling Stone, writer Patrick Doyle does a much better job giving readers a fuller picture of Sheeran.

Sheeran’s working class, hard-partying PR line is laid out, but also some warts.

“The whole musician thing comes from wanting to be loved and wanting to be liked,” Sheeran is quoted as saying.

The singer has a “legends” wall that he asks famous musicians to sign. So far, only Eric Clapton has obliged.

The fact that the “legends” wall is set apart from another that bears the names of his real friends is a gesture that seems so lonely and sad — like the two walls could be the basis of a hit song.

Also, Doyle quotes singer Katy Perry explaining Sheeran’s bedroom luck with Swift’s model friends, but really is describing the whole of his appeal: “Everybody loves him,” Perry says, “no one’s scared of him, they want to date him. They can have him.”

The news magazines tell us what we need to know about the latest political buzz words, including what exactly a “deep state” is.

In his zeal to “drain the swamp” in Washington, President Trump is not only taking aim at elected officials, but also institutions that stand in his way, according to Time’s cover story, which got to Stephen Bannon, who lays out Trump’s motives and agenda.

It’s all about the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” otherwise known as “deep state,” Bannon said. Every time Trump faces opposition, he riles up his base depicting himself as a “warrior” against the state.

Trump is deliberately starving government agencies by not nominating officials below the Cabinet level, which is all part of the “master plan,” White House sources tell Time.

Sean Spicer’s White House press briefings are the most highly rated programs on daytime TV, so it’s only fitting that The New Yorker takes a look at Spicer and whom he is letting into his briefings. Hint: have you ever heard of the word “floater”?

Well, there are a lot of them — fringe news outlets like LifeZette, a Web tabloid — at the briefings.

But Spicer’s most significant audience is the president himself.

David Remnick’s weekly points out that the president’s schedule is usually left blank between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. when Spicer is holding his briefings — so he can direct his aides, if needed, to hand-deliver notes to Spicer while he’s at the lectern.

Andrew Marantz uncovers some entertaining details in his “Trolling the Press Corps.”