The truth about Trump's Time photo: How staffed laughed over image

When Donald Trump secured a historic peace deal that ended the war in Gaza, Time magazine tried to meet the moment with its traditional cover.

Instead, it was dubbed, in the president's words, the 'worst photo ever taken'.

As all the living Israeli hostages were returned home and the shelling stopped, the outlet published a trailblazing photo of the 79-year-old alongside the words: 'His triumph'.

Trump appears to be looking up into a beam of light, in what editors may have considered a magisterial pose.

The image was picked to match Trump's landmark agreement that has ended the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Because of the camera angle however, his hair appears to be missing, and they hit a sore spot: his appearance.

What was supposed to be a watershed moment for the publication instead left Trump enraged, reigniting a long-running feud with Time.

And the Daily Mail has learned it may have been a calculated move from staff.

The accompanying article was a glowing analysis of an accomplishment that has failed many of his predecessors for decades:

But Trump's response was fury.

On Truth Social at 1.30am on Tuesday - while he was flying back from to the U.S. from a peace summit in Egypt - he wrote to his followers: 'Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time.

'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.

When Daily Mail reached out to one source at Time, they said: 'Yes it was on purpose, we, laughed about it.'

Another insider had a more measured response, but had a message for the president that it wasn't a copy of Vogue.

The member of staff said: 'We wanted a picture that didn't look like every other photo out there.

'If he doesn't like the shot, that's unfortunate.

'But when you're the President of the United States, you know you're going to be photographed from every angle, and some angles are more flattering than others.

'Of course, there were people who thought it was a bad picture, but we're not Vogue. It was accompanied by a very fair story about the President.'

Daily Mail has reached out to Time Magazine for comment.

While the photo may have lit the anger in the commander-in-chief, the article and related social media posts were fawning.

In a social media post on X, Time hailed Trump's latest agreement as the 'signature achievement' of his second term.

'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 wrote alongside the photo.

'The deal may become a signature achievement of Trump's second term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East.'

Kari Lake, the acting chief executive of the US Agency for Global Media and a longtime supporter of the President, posted a fake version of the Time cover on X.

The edited photo shows Trump staring straight ahead, with his hair in full view, along with the caption, 'Trump's Triumph: Bringing Peace to the World.'

Trump has previously been upset with depictions of him, and believes it is done purposely on most occasions.

In March, he raged at a portrait in the Colorado State Capitol.

'Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,' Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.

The painting by Sarah Boardman was then removed.

Trump has also ordered tweaks to the presidential portraits in the White House.

His portrait from the January inauguration showed him with a serious stare.

In June, West Wing staff released an updated version with more dramatic lighting and a black backdrop.

Trump has also frequently picked battles with news outlets, and Time has been one of his popular targets.

It's far from his first time on the cover. In February 2025, an illustration showed him swiping papers of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with the headline: 'He's back'.

A close-up portrait in May 2025 was printed with the caption: 'Dealing with it'.

In 2024, he was named Time Person of the Year.

Editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs wrote at the time: 'Since he began running for president in 2015, perhaps no single individual has played a larger role in changing the course of politics and history than Trump.'

In February 2025 however, he mocked the magazine for putting a mocked-up photo of Elon Musk behind the Resolute Desk, quipping that he 'didn't know it was still in business'.

In October 2024, he frequently criticized the coverage of Kamala Harris during the campaign.

He also accused Time of using a fake photo of the then-Vice President.