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This is a favorable article in a periodical that the president has consistently praised – except for one issue. The cover picture, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Trump's role in facilitating a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a photo of Trump captured from underneath and with the sun shining from the back.

The result, he says, is "super bad".

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the image may be the Worst of All Time", the president posted on his social media platform.

“They removed my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that looked like a hovering tiara, but an extremely small one. Truly strange! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a extremely poor picture, and merits public condemnation. What is their intention, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to feature on the cover of Time and achieved this multiple times in the past year. The preoccupation has reached his golf courses – in 2017, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers shown in several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was taken by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on October 5.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively his chin and neck area – a chance that California governor Newsom seized, with his press office sharing an altered image with the problematic part obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been freed under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement could be a signature achievement of his next term, and it may represent a key shift for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defense of the president’s appearance has come from a surprising origin: the communications chief at the Russian foreign ministry came forward to criticise the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's remarkable: a photo reveals far more about those who picked it than about the person in it. Just unwell persons, people driven by hatred and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", Maria Zakharova shared on her social channel.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical used on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she noted.

The answer to the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to artistically representing a impression of strength says an imaging expert, a media professional.

The image itself is professionally taken," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look commanding. Looking up at a person evokes a feeling of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see pictures of him in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she adds. And, while the story’s headline complements the president's look in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and even if all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The Guardian reached out to Time magazine for a statement.