🔗 Share this article

This is a glowing story in a publication that the president has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's paean to Donald Trump's part in brokering a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a photograph of the president taken from below while the sun behind his head.

The result, he says, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the photo may be the Worst of All Time", he shared on his preferred network.

“My hair was obscured, and then there was something floating my head that seemed like a hovering crown, but quite miniature. Very odd! I have consistently disliked being captured from low angles, but this is a extremely poor image, and it merits criticism. Why did they choose this, and why?”

Trump has made clear his wish to feature on the cover of Time and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has made it as far as his golf courses – previously, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers on display at a few of his establishments.

The latest edition’s photo was shot by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

The shot's viewpoint did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – an opportunity that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with his press office sharing an altered image with the problematic part obscured.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been released under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a release of Palestinian detainees. The arrangement could be a major success of Trump's second term, and it could mark a key shift for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a support for the president’s appearance has come from an unexpected source: the spokesperson at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to criticise the "revealing" photo selection.

It's amazing: a photograph says more about those who chose it than about the subject. Only sick people, people driven by hatred and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have chosen such a photo", Maria Zakharova wrote on her social channel.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that that magazine displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for the publication", she noted.

The answer to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with artistically representing a impression of strength according to a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is professionally taken," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look impressive. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their grandeur and Trump’s face actually looks contemplative and almost a bit ethereal. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, producing a glowing aura, she says. Even though the article's title marries well with the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and even if all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are unflattering."

The publication contacted Time magazine for feedback.