Trump Rips Time Magazine for Unflattering Cover Photo Despite ‘Relatively Good’ Story on Israel Peace Deal
President Donald Trump took aim at Time magazine Tuesday morning, blasting the outlet for using what he called the “Worst [photo] of All Time” on a new cover celebrating his landmark peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
“Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time,” Trump posted 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!”
The magazine’s cover, headlined “His Triumph,” features an unusually angled portrait of Trump shot from below, showcasing his right ear, nostril, cheek, and eye in a dramatic close-up. The stylized image drew mockery online — but also sparked conversation about the significance of the article it accompanied.
The feature, while acknowledging the president’s polarizing image, credited Trump’s 20-point Middle East peace blueprint for achieving what critics had long dismissed as unworkable: a broad ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a full hostage release, and the groundwork for lasting regional cooperation.
“The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Donald Trump’s peace plan, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release,” Time reported. In return, Israel released roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 360 deceased individuals.
The article framed the moment as a potential signature achievement of Trump’s second term and a turning point for the broader Middle East — recognition that Trump proudly repeated during a historic address before Israel’s Knesset on Monday.
“We’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible — at long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump declared, before traveling to Egypt to co-lead a multilateral peace summit with over two dozen heads of state and foreign ministers.
Trump, no stranger to Time magazine, has been both its cover subject and critic for years. He previously earned the coveted “Person of the Year” title twice — once in 2016 and again in 2024 — and has granted the magazine multiple interviews throughout his political rise. In one memorable 2015 photo shoot, he posed with a bald eagle that famously tried to claw him mid-interview.
Yet Trump has also consistently pushed back against what he sees as media efforts to undermine his image through awkward visuals and unfair framing. Last month, he demanded an internal investigation at the United Nations after a stalled escalator and frozen teleprompter disrupted his address to the General Assembly, calling it a “setup.”
Despite the criticism over the photo, the president appears unbothered by the content of Time’s article — perhaps seeing it as a reluctant nod from a legacy media outlet long critical of his administration. Still, Trump made it clear that in his world, the picture matters as much as the prose.