 "Donald Trump has hit out at Time over the magazine's cover featuring him. X/@TIME")
United States President Donald Trump was on cloud nine after securing a peace deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. However, after returning from the Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, the American leader made his frustration public — not because of anything that happened in Egypt but due to his seemingly unflattering photo.
Trump slammed Time Magazine’s latest cover featuring him, accusing it of using the worst picture “of all time”. This is not the first time the Republican has criticised the American magazine.
Let’s take a closer look.
Trump lashes out at Time magazine
Donald Trump blasted Time magazine for a cover photo that accompanied a feature on his Gaza peace deal as “the Worst of All Time.”
The image, taken from a low angle, shows the US president dressed in a suit and his signature red tie, backlit by bright sunlight.
“Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early on Tuesday. “They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird!” He described the image as “a super bad picture that deserves to be called out.”
The US president’s criticism of the Time magazine cover came hours after he concluded visits to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.
The cover photo also faced flak from Trump allies.
“Time magazine uses the most unflattering photos of President Trump at a moment when they should be honouring him,” Kari Lake, who oversees the Voice of America broadcast organisation, said, calling the cover “fake news.”
Defending the US president, the director of information at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised the “self-incriminating” image choice.
“It’s astonishing: a photograph reveals far more about those who selected it than about the person in it. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and hatred – perhaps even perverts – could have chosen such a photo”, Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
“And given the complimentary photos of [ex US President Joe] Biden that the same publication used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time”, she said.
Unveiled on Monday, Time magazine featured the title “His Triumph”, “the leader Israel needed,” and “how Gaza heals” alongside Trump’s photo.
It also hailed the Gaza peace plan as potentially being a “signature achievement of Trump’s second term” that could “mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East [West Asia].”
The first phase of a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas has resulted in the release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the freeing of around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israel.
Trump’s run-ins with Time magazine
US President Trump has featured on the Time magazine cover multiple times, including four times last year. He was first on the cover in 1989.
Trump also appeared in 2015 before his first election as the US president and again this year after returning to the White House.
He has also made no qualms about his desire to feature on Time’s cover. Trump has been named the magazine’s Person of the Year twice. The first time was in 2016, when Time placed his picture alongside the caption: “President of the divided states of America”.
The second time, Time magazine announced Trump as its Person of the Year last December for his “unparalleled political rebirth”. The magazine’s interview with the then US president-elect was, however, followed by a fact-check.
Time published the article Fact-Checking Trump’s 2024 Person of the Year Interview, questioning 15 separate statements made by Trump. Time said at the time that no other Person of the Year had been fact-checked in the near-century. However, similar corrections have been made for past interviews with Joe Biden, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, and Trump.
Some claimed the placement of the ‘M’ in the title, seen behind the US president’s head, was intended to mimic devil horns. However, Time denied these allegations, publishing an article titled ‘37 Time Magazine Covers That Appeared to Give People Horns’.
The same design issue occurred several times before, including on the covers of former US Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama.
“Given the shape of the letter “m” in the magazine’s name and its location on the cover, many other subjects in the past have also appeared to sprout extra features,” the magazine wrote in its 2015 article.
Notably, Trump is among the 10 US presidents to have been picked by Time more than once to appear on the cover.
In 2017, the magazine asked Trump to remove a fake version of Time’s March 2009 edition featuring the billionaire from display at his golf clubs.
Despite his complicated history with the magazine, since January, the White House has posted AI-generated photos of Trump wearing a crown resembling the style of Time’s iconic front cover.
Trump has also hit out at Time for selecting Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as its person of the year in 2019, calling it “ridiculous”.
In February, Time’s print cover showed Elon Musk behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Taking a jibe at the magazine, Trump responded to the cover: “Is Time magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that.”
He has also claimed he would “probably” have been picked to appear on the magazine’s front in 2017 but turned it down. Time rejected his assertions.
With inputs from agencies