President Donald Trump has brokered what he calls a historic peace deal in the Middle East — but that’s not what’s on his mind. Instead, Trump is furious at Time magazine over the cover photo that accompanied its new issue, which prominently features the president and the headline: “His Triumph.”
“Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time,” Trump posted early Tuesday 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!”
He didn’t stop there. “A super bad picture that deserves to be called out,” he added.
The cover in question, released Monday, shows Trump shot from below, lit from behind with a halo of sunlight. The image is clearly meant to be dramatic — but in Trump’s view, it crossed into sabotage. What was meant to capture a legacy-defining diplomatic breakthrough instead sparked a social media tirade about his hair.
The article praises Trump’s role in orchestrating what Time calls a “strategic turning point” in the Middle East — a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas that has led to the release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza and roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
The deal, signed Monday in a string of high-profile meetings in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Sharm el-Sheikh, formally ends a two-year war that began with the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Trump, flanked by leaders from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar, has claimed the agreement as a personal victory — and Time seems to agree.
Calling it “a signature achievement of Trump’s second term,” the article marks a rare moment of mainstream media approval. But instead of basking in that praise, Trump chose to torch the magazine over what he saw in the mirror — or rather, what he didn’t.
This isn’t Trump’s first public meltdown over magazine covers. He has long had a love-hate relationship with Time, famously displaying fake covers in his golf clubs, feuding with editors, and alternately embracing and rejecting the outlet depending on how flattering the spotlight was.
He has been Time’s Person of the Year — twice — but that hasn’t stopped him from blasting the publication when the visuals don’t align with his self-image.
In this case, the story — a rare feather in his diplomatic cap — took a backseat to follicular outrage.
