🔗 Share this article

This is a glowing feature in a periodical that Trump has frequently admired – except for one issue. The cover picture, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time's praise to Trump's role in facilitating a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of the president taken from below and with the sun behind his head.

The result, the president asserts, is ""terrible".

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the photo may be the Worst of All Time", Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“My hair was obscured, and then there was an object above my head that looked like a suspended diadem, but extremely small. Truly strange! I have always hated being captured from low angles, but this is a extremely poor image, and it deserves to be called out. What is their goal, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to appear on Time’s cover and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has made it as far as Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages on display at several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was captured by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on the fifth of October.

The perspective highlighted negatively Trump’s chin and neck – an opening that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with his press office tweeting a version with the criticized section obscured.

{The hostages from Israel held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal might turn into a major success of Trump's second term, and it might signify a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

At the same time, a defense of Trump's image has emerged from unusual quarters: the director of information at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to criticise the "damaging" photo selection.

It's amazing: a image exposes those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Just unwell persons, people obsessed with malice and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have chosen such a photo", she posted on Telegram.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the case is self-damaging for Time", she said.

The explanation for Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a sense of power says a picture editor, a media professional.

The photograph technically is professionally taken," she notes. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see photos of Trump in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, producing a glowing aura, she adds. Even though the feature's heading pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The Guardian reached out to Time magazine for a statement.