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This is a favorable feature in a periodical that Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The cover picture, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time magazine's praise to Trump's role in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a photograph of the president captured from underneath while the sun behind his head.

The outcome, the president asserts, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", the president posted on Truth Social.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was something floating my head that seemed like a suspended diadem, but extremely small. Really weird! I have consistently disliked being shot from underneath, but this is a awful image, and it merits criticism. Why did they choose this, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. This fixation has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages shown in some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was shot by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

The perspective did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – a chance that California governor Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the problematic part pixelated.

{The hostages from Israel in Gaza have been freed under the opening part of Donald Trump's peace plan, in exchange for a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement may become a defining accomplishment of the president's renewed tenure, and it may represent a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

At the same time, a defense of Trump's image has come from an unexpected source: the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to criticise the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a image exposes those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have selected such an image", the official shared on Telegram.

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

The answer to Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve innovatively depicting a feeling of authority according to an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is professionally taken," she notes. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look impressive. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their importance and his expression actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see photos of Trump in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. Although the feature's heading complements his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and even if all of the conceptual elements of the image are highly effective, the visual appeal are not complimentary."

The news outlet contacted the periodical for feedback.