🔗 Share this article

It is a glowing story in a magazine that the president has frequently admired – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Donald Trump's part in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a photo of Trump shot from a low angle and with the sun positioned behind him.

The effect, the president asserts, is ""extremely poor".

"Time Magazine wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the most awful ever", he shared on his preferred network.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was a shape over my head that seemed like a hovering crown, but quite miniature. Truly strange! I have never liked being captured from low angles, but this is a extremely poor image, and it deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time’s cover and achieved this multiple times in the past year. The preoccupation has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in several of his venues.

The latest edition’s photo was shot by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on October 5.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – an opportunity that California governor Newsom did not miss, with his press office sharing an altered image with the offending area obscured.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been released under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, alongside a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement may become a defining accomplishment of Trump's second term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for the region.

Simultaneously, a defense of the president’s appearance has been offered by unusual quarters: the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to criticise the "damaging" picture decision.

"It’s astonishing: a photo exposes those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she added.

The explanation for the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with innovatively depicting a feeling of authority says an imaging expert, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look commanding. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks thoughtful and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she says. Even though the feature's heading marries well with the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being photographed from below, and even if all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are not flattering."

The Guardian contacted the periodical for feedback.