🔗 Share this article

This is a favorable article in a publication that Donald Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's paean to the president's involvement in facilitating a Gaza ceasefire, leading its 10 November issue, was accompanied by a image of the president taken from below and with the sun positioned behind him.

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

"Time wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that appeared as a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird! I never liked taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a extremely poor picture, and should be criticized. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time’s cover and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has extended to his golf courses – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove mocked up covers exhibited in some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was taken by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office tweeting a version with the offending area obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been released under the initial stage of Donald Trump's peace plan, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement may become a signature achievement of his next term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

At the same time, a support for his portrayal has emerged from unusual quarters: the communications chief at the Russian foreign ministry intervened to criticise the "self-incriminating" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a photo reveals far more about those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Only sick people, people driven by hatred and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical featured on the front, even with his age-related challenges, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she said.

The answer to his queries – why did they choose this, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a sense of power stated by an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted the president to look commanding. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their majesty and his expression actually looks contemplative and almost slightly angelic. It's uncommon you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Even though the feature's heading complements the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being captured from low angles, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the visual appeal are not complimentary."

The news outlet reached out to Time magazine for feedback.