🔗 Share this article

It is a glowing story in a publication that the president has consistently praised – with one exception. The front-page image, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was paired with a photograph of Trump captured from underneath while the sun behind his head.

The effect, he says, is "super bad".

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the picture may be the lowest quality in history", Trump wrote on his preferred network.

“My hair was erased, and then there was something floating my head that appeared as a floating crown, but very tiny. Very odd! I have always hated being photographed from below, but this is a awful image, and it deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

Trump has made no secret of his desire to feature on Time magazine's front page and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to his golf courses – in 2017, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers exhibited in some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was shot by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on October 5.

Its angle highlighted negatively Trump’s chin and neck – a chance that California governor Gavin Newsom did not miss, with the governor's office posting a modified photo with the problematic part blurred.

{The hostages from Israel in Gaza have been liberated under the initial stage of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. The deal may become a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it may represent a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a defence of the president’s appearance has emerged from an unexpected source: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to condemn the "revealing" picture decision.

It's amazing: a image exposes those who chose it than about the person in it. Only sick people, people driven by hatred and hatred –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that that magazine featured on the front, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she added.

The answer to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a feeling of authority according to an imaging expert, a media professional.

The image itself is well-executed," she says. "They selected this photo because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Gazing upward creates an impression of their grandeur and his expression actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It's uncommon you see photos of Trump in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she adds. Even though the story’s headline marries well with his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are highly effective, the appearance are not complimentary."

The news outlet approached the magazine for feedback.