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It is a favorable story in a publication that Trump has frequently admired – except for one issue. The front-page image, the president decreed, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's tribute to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a truce for Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was paired with a photo of the president taken from below while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"The publication wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the image may be the Worst of All Time", the president posted on his preferred network.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a hovering tiara, but an remarkably little one. Quite bizarre! I never liked taking pictures from below viewpoints, but this is a terrible picture, and deserves to be called out. What is their intention, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown clear his wish to be pictured on Time’s cover and achieved this multiple times in the past year. This fixation has extended to the president's resorts – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages on display at some of his properties.

The most recent cover image was taken by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on 5 October.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – an opportunity that the governor of California Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the problematic part pixelated.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been released under the opening part of Donald Trump's peace plan, together with a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement could be a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it may represent a strategic turning point for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defence of the president’s appearance has emerged from an unexpected source: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to condemn the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a photograph exposes those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", she shared on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the same publication displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the case is self-damaging for the magazine", she said.

The explanation for Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – may be something to do with artistically representing a feeling of authority stated by a picture editor, a media professional.

The image itself is professionally taken," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their majesty and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair looks erased because the rear illumination has overexposed that part of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. And, while the story’s headline complements the president's look in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are highly effective, the visual appeal are unflattering."

The Guardian reached out to the periodical for feedback.