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This is a favorable article in a periodical that Trump has consistently praised – with one exception. The front-page image, Trump declared, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's praise to Donald Trump's part in mediating a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a image of the president taken from below while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“My hair was erased, and then there was an object above my head that looked like a suspended diadem, but very tiny. Really weird! I have consistently disliked being shot from underneath, but this is a extremely poor image, and it deserves to be called out. What is their goal, and why?”

Trump has made clear his wish to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and achieved this multiple times in the past year. The preoccupation has extended to his golf courses – previously, the editors demanded to remove mocked up covers shown in a few of his establishments.

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

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to his chin and neck area – an opportunity that the governor of California Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his press office sharing an altered image with the criticized section pixelated.

{The Israeli captives detained in Gaza have been freed under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. The arrangement could be a major success of Trump's second term, and it could mark a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defence of Trump's image has been offered by an unexpected source: the director of information at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to criticise the "damaging" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a photograph reveals far more about those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and hatred –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", Maria Zakharova shared on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that the periodical used on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she said.

The response to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – might involve artistically representing a feeling of authority stated by Carly Earl, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself is well-executed," she says. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone gives a sense of their majesty and his expression actually looks reflective and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see images of the president in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

The president's hair looks erased because the light from behind has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Although the article's title complements the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

"No one likes being captured from low angles, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the visual appeal are not complimentary."

The Guardian contacted the magazine for comment.