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This is a glowing article in a periodical that the president has frequently admired – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's paean to the president's involvement in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was paired with a photo of the president taken from below and with the sun positioned behind him.

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

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

“My hair was erased, and then there was a shape over my head that appeared as a suspended diadem, but quite miniature. Very odd! I have always hated being captured from low angles, but this is a awful image, and it should be denounced. What is their goal, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to be pictured on the cover of Time and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. This fixation has reached the president's resorts – years ago, the editors demanded to remove fake issues exhibited in a few of his establishments.

The most recent cover image was shot by a photographer for a news agency at the presidential residence on October 5.

The perspective did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – an opening that California governor Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his press office tweeting a version with the problematic part pixelated.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, alongside a release of Palestinian detainees. The deal may become a defining accomplishment of Trump's second term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defence of his portrayal has emerged from an unexpected source: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office intervened to criticise the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a image says more about those who selected it than about the person in it. Only disturbed individuals, people obsessed with malice and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", the official wrote on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that that magazine displayed on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she added.

The answer to Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a sense of power stated by an imaging expert, a media professional.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she notes. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their importance and the president's visage actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's uncommon you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, producing a glowing aura, she adds. Although the story’s headline marries well with the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are highly effective, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The news outlet reached out to Time magazine for a statement.