President Donald Trump is not a fan of Time magazine’s cover photo.
Time published the cover of its next November 10th issue on X. The photo features a photo of President Trump taken from a low altitude in the sun, creating a halo effect with his hair blurring in the light. It features three titles: “His Victory,” “The Leader Israel Needed,” and “How to Heal Gaza.” XPost links to an article that says a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas could be the signature outcome of President Trump’s second term.
But Trump appeared on Truth Social early in the morning after returning to the United States from Egypt to criticize the photo.
“Time magazine wrote a relatively good article about me, but the photo may be the worst ever. They ‘erased’ my hair and then they had what looked like a crown floating on top of my head, but it was very small,” Trump wrote. “Really strange! I’ve never liked taking pictures from below, but this is a very bad picture and deserves to be condemned. What are they doing and why?”
See the cover of Trump on Time magazine
Time Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its November cover.
This is not the first time Trump has appeared on the cover of the magazine. The February 2025 cover featured an illustration of President Trump brushing things off his desk in the Oval Office, with the caption, “He’s back.” The May 2025 cover featured a close-up portrait of him staring into the camera, titled “Dealing with It.”
Trump was also named Time magazine’s 2024 Person of the Year.
“Perhaps no individual has played a greater role in changing the course of politics and history than Mr. Trump since he began running for president in 2015,” editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs wrote at the time.
President Trump previously expressed outrage over his portrait in Colorado.
In March, a portrait of President Donald Trump that was put up by state Republicans in the Colorado State Capitol six years ago was removed after the president was outraged on social media.
“No one likes a bad photo or painting of themselves, but the pictures that the governor and other presidents put up in the Colorado State Capitol were intentionally distorted to a degree that probably even I have never seen before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time, without explaining why he thought it was distorted.
The portrait’s artist, Sarah A. Boardman, told The Denver Post when it was unveiled in 2019 that the portrait was intended to represent American history, not tell the story of any particular president, and was intended primarily to appear apolitical.
Trump also made changes to his presidential portrait. In June, just months after taking office, the White House unveiled an updated version of his official portrait for the second time in this presidential term. Like the portrait released in January, President Trump’s latest portrait shows him with a furrowed brow and a serious expression. However, the new image uses more dramatic lighting on a black background, rather than the flag or decorative wall in the background of the previous portrait. Trump also swapped his blue tie for a red one.
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky (@kinseycrowley.bsky.social).
