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It is a favorable story in a publication that the president has frequently admired – with one exception. The cover picture, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time's paean to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a photo of Trump taken from below while the sun shining from the back.

The result, Trump claims, is "super bad".

"The publication wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the image may be the lowest quality in history", the president posted on his preferred network.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was a shape over my head that seemed like a suspended diadem, but quite miniature. Truly strange! I have consistently disliked being shot from underneath, but this is a extremely poor image, and it should be denounced. What is their goal, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to appear on Time’s cover and accomplished it four times last year. The obsession has reached his golf courses – previously, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages on display at some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on October 5.

Its angle did no favours for his chin and neck area – an opening that California governor Newsom seized, with the governor's office posting a modified photo with the problematic part pixelated.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been freed under the opening part of Donald Trump's peace plan, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. The arrangement could be a defining accomplishment of the president's renewed tenure, and it may represent a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defense of the president’s appearance has been offered by unusual quarters: the director of information at the Russian foreign ministry intervened to denounce the "revealing" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a image exposes those who chose it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people obsessed with malice and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have chosen such a photo", she wrote on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that the same publication used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the case is self-damaging for the publication", she noted.

The answer to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a sense of power says a picture editor, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It’s not often you see pictures of him in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, creating a halo effect, she explains. Even though the feature's heading pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "you can’t always please the subject matter."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and while all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The Guardian reached out to the magazine for comment.