President Donald Trump received praise this week for his work in the Middle East, with Time magazine calling the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners possibly “a signature achievement of Trump's second term.” However, the president wasn’t totally happy with the outlet’s coverage.
Specifically, he’s slammed the photo Time chose.
“The picture may be the Worst of All Time,” he said in a Tuesday Truth Social post. “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?”
Time’s cover photo was indeed from a below eye-level angle, showing Trump’s neck prominently and causing his signature pompadour of blond-ish hair to fade into the blue-white background. According to The Guardian, the photo was taken by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on Oct. 5.
That outlet also noted that the press office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic political rival of Trump’s who has lately been taking a page from the GOP president’s caustic humor playbook, posted a version of the photo with Trump’s neck blurred out.
Meanwhile, The Guardian also noted that Maria Zakharova, the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs, said: “Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and hatred –perhaps even perverts – could have chosen such a photo,” on Telegram.
Other than the photo, Trump said that Time “wrote a relatively good story about me.”
A Tuesday press release from the White House noted that “President Trump’s defining global leadership united a diverse, bipartisan coalition of former Presidents, world leaders, experts, journalists, and others in widespread praise,” regarding his work in the Middle East. Former President Bill Clinton, husband of Trump’s one-time presidential challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, even complimented Trump on the achievement.
“President Trump and his administration, Qatar, and other regional actors deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached,” said Clinton in a statement posted to X.
In the wake of the news, Trump’s approval rating was also up 0.3 points compared to the previous week as of Wednesday, according The Economist’s approval tracker. With that increase, 40% approved of the president, compared to 55% who disapproved and 5% who were not sure.