🔗 Share this article

It is a favorable feature in a magazine that the president has frequently admired – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's paean to Trump's role in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a image of Trump captured from underneath while the sun behind his head.

The effect, the president asserts, is "super bad".

"Time wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the photo may be the most awful ever", he shared on Truth Social.

“They removed my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that resembled a suspended coronet, but an remarkably little one. Quite bizarre! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a extremely poor picture, and merits public condemnation. What is their intention, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to feature on Time magazine's front page and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has reached his golf courses – in 2017, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was taken by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

Its angle highlighted negatively his chin and neck area – an opportunity that California governor Gavin Newsom seized, with his press office posting a modified photo with the criticized section obscured.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement might turn into a signature achievement of Trump's second term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a defense of Trump's image has emerged from a surprising origin: the director of information at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to denounce the "damaging" picture decision.

It's remarkable: a photo reveals far more about those who picked it than about the individual pictured. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and animosity –maybe even degenerates – could have chosen such a photo", Maria Zakharova shared on her social channel.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that the periodical used on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she noted.

The answer to his queries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a sense of power says Carly Earl, a media professional.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost slightly angelic. It’s not often you see pictures of him 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, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Although the story’s headline complements his facial expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and although all of the conceptual elements of the image are very strong, the appearance are not complimentary."

The Guardian contacted the periodical for a statement.