Donald Trump has accused Time Magazine of using the worst picture “of all time” on its cover marking his Gaza peace deal.
The image, taken from a low angle, features Mr Trump dressed in a suit and his signature red tie, backlit with sunlight alongside the captions “his triumph,” “the leader Israel needed,” and “how Gaza heals”.
Reacting to the cover, Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social: “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! I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”
Mr Trump has appeared on the Time front cover a number of times, including in the 1980s, in 2015 before his election, and this year following his return to the White House. He was named Time’s person of the year in 2024 for the second time.
Mr Trump as Time’s person of the year in 2016 – Time magazine
The first time Mr Trump was named Time’s person of the year in 2016, he was pictured alongside the caption: “President of the divided states of America”.
Some suggested the placement of the M in the title, positioned behind his head, has been intended to mimic devil horns.
The magazine denied the claims, pointing out other occasions where the same design issue occurred, including on the covers of former presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama.
Time named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris joint person of the year in 2020 after they won the US presidential election. The two politicians appeared side-by-side in a portrait on the magazine’s cover on Dec 21, 2020.
Ten presidents, including Mr Trump, have been selected more than once to appear on the cover, including Franklin D Roosevelt, who was featured on three separate occasions.
In 2017, the magazine asked Mr Trump to remove a fake version of Time’s March 2009 edition featuring the then New York business mogul from display at his golf clubs.
Since he returned to power in January, the White House has posted AI-generated photos of Mr Trump wearing a crown in the style of Time’s iconic front cover.
Mr Trump also criticised Time for selecting Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as its person of the year in 2019, branding it “ridiculous” in a post on Twitter.
The US president was asked to remove a fake version of a Time cover featuring himself from the walls at his golf club – Angel Valentin for the Washington Post
He has also claimed he would “probably” have been chosen to appear on the front in 2017 but turned it down. Time denied this.
Despite his criticism of the Time front cover, Mr Trump has been unusually positive about the media’s coverage of his efforts to secure peace in Gaza.
Speaking to the press pack directly in Egypt as the deal was unveiled on Monday, he said: “I want to thank the media. You’ve been so respectful on this deal.”
He continued: “It was so pleasant to watch: I was on the plane for quite a while listening to the various newscasts, and they were all fair. They were talking about how incredible this is.”
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