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It is a glowing feature in a periodical that Trump has long exalted – with one exception. The cover picture, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's paean to the president's involvement in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of the president shot from a low angle while the sun shining from the back.

The outcome, the president asserts, is ""extremely poor".

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", he shared on his preferred network.

“They removed my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that appeared as a floating crown, but an remarkably little one. Really weird! I consistently avoided taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a terrible picture, and merits public condemnation. Why did they do this, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to feature on Time magazine's front page and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the publication requested to remove fake issues shown in some of his properties.

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

Its angle did no favours for Trump’s chin and neck – an opportunity that the governor of California Newsom seized, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the offending area obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been released under the initial stage of Donald Trump's peace plan, together with a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement could be a signature achievement of Trump's second term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a support for his portrayal has emerged from unusual quarters: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to criticise the "self-incriminating" picture decision.

"It’s astonishing: a photo says more about those who picked it than about the person in it. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that that magazine used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she noted.

The answer to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with innovatively depicting a sense of power stated by Carly Earl, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their grandeur and his expression actually looks contemplative and almost slightly angelic. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she says. Although the story’s headline pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being photographed from below, and while all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the visual appeal are unflattering."

The news outlet reached out to Time magazine for feedback.