🔗 Share this article

It is a positive feature in a periodical that the president has frequently admired – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a image of Trump taken from below and with the sun positioned behind him.

The outcome, Trump claims, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that looked like a hovering tiara, but an very tiny one. Truly strange! I consistently avoided taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a terrible picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to appear on Time magazine's front page and accomplished it four times last year. The preoccupation has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the editors demanded to remove fake issues shown in several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was captured by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on October 5.

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to his chin and neck area – a chance that California governor Gavin Newsom seized, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the criticized section obscured.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal might turn into a defining accomplishment of the president's renewed tenure, and it could mark a key shift for the region.

Meanwhile, a defense of the president’s appearance has come from unusual quarters: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office intervened to criticise the "self-incriminating" picture decision.

It's amazing: a image reveals far more about those who chose it than about the subject. Just unwell persons, people driven by hatred and hatred –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova shared on her social channel.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that that magazine used on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she said.

The answer to the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a sense of power according to an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself is well-executed," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look heroic. Gazing upward creates an impression of their majesty and his expression actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see images of the president in such a peaceful state – the picture feels tender."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. Even though the article's title marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are highly effective, the appearance are unflattering."

The news outlet reached out to Time magazine for comment.