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This is a glowing article in a magazine that Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's paean to Trump's role in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was accompanied by a image of the president shot from a low angle and with the sun shining from the back.

The outcome, Trump claims, is ""terrible".

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

“They eliminated my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that resembled a suspended coronet, but an extremely small one. Quite bizarre! I never liked taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a extremely poor picture, and should be criticized. What is their intention, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown no secret of his desire to appear on the cover of Time and did so four times last year. This fixation has reached Trump’s golf clubs – in 2017, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages shown in a few of his establishments.

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

Its angle was unflattering to his chin and neck area – a chance that California governor Newsom seized, with the governor's office tweeting a version with the criticized section blurred.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been released under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement might turn into a major success of his next term, and it may represent a pivotal moment for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a defense of his portrayal has come from a surprising origin: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to criticise the "self-incriminating" picture decision.

"It’s astonishing: a image exposes those who picked it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have chosen such a photo", Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram.

"And given the complimentary photos of Biden that that magazine displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she noted.

The response to his queries – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a feeling of authority according to an imaging expert, an Australian publication's photo editor.

"The actual photo itself technically is good," she says. "They chose this shot because they wanted the president to look commanding. Staring up at someone gives a sense of their importance and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has washed out that area of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. Even though the story’s headline pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the person photographed."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The publication contacted Time magazine for comment.