'The all-time low': Donald Trump criticizes Time's 'super bad' cover picture.

It is a favorable story in a periodical that Donald Trump has consistently praised – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's tribute to the president's involvement in facilitating a truce for Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was accompanied by a photograph of Trump taken from below and with the sun behind his head.

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

"The publication wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", he shared on his social media platform.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was a shape over my head that looked like a hovering crown, but quite miniature. Truly strange! I have always hated being shot from underneath, but this is a awful image, and it merits criticism. Why did they choose this, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to feature on Time’s cover and achieved this four times last year. The obsession has extended to his golf courses – previously, the publication requested to remove fake issues on display at several of his venues.

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

Its angle did no favours for his chin and neck area – a chance that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team tweeting a version with the problematic part obscured.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been liberated under the initial stage of the president's diplomatic initiative, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement may become a signature achievement of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a pivotal moment for the region.

Simultaneously, a defense of his portrayal has come from an unexpected source: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry came forward to condemn the "revealing" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a photograph exposes those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and resentment –perhaps even perverts – could have picked this picture", Maria Zakharova shared on her social channel.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the case is self-damaging for the publication", she said.

The explanation for his queries – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a feeling of authority stated by a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The photograph technically technically is good," she says. "They chose this shot because they wanted the president to look commanding. Staring up at someone gives a sense of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks thoughtful and almost slightly angelic. It's uncommon you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

His hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has overexposed that part of the image, generating a radiant circle, she says. Even though the article's title complements the president's look in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are not complimentary."

The publication approached Time magazine for a statement.

Joshua Mann
Joshua Mann

A digital strategist with over 10 years of experience in helping businesses scale through data-driven marketing approaches.