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This is a positive story in a magazine that Donald Trump has long exalted – with one exception. The front-page image, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's paean to the president's involvement in brokering a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of the president taken from below while the sun shining from the back.

The effect, he says, is ""extremely poor".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", the president posted on his social media platform.

“They removed my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that resembled a hovering tiara, but an very tiny one. Really weird! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and should be criticized. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to be pictured on the cover of Time and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has made it as far as the president's resorts – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove fake issues exhibited in a few of his establishments.

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

Its angle was unflattering to the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Newsom did not miss, with his press office tweeting a version with the problematic part obscured.

{The hostages from Israel held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, together with a release of Palestinian detainees. The arrangement might turn into a signature achievement of his next term, and it may represent a key shift for the region.

At the same time, a support for his portrayal has been offered by an unexpected source: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to condemn the "revealing" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a photo reveals far more about those who selected it than about the subject. Just unwell persons, people driven by hatred and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", she shared on Telegram.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that that magazine featured on the front, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for the magazine", she noted.

The response to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a feeling of authority says Carly Earl, an Australian publication's photo editor.

"The actual photo itself technically is good," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their majesty and the president's visage actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It’s not often you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, generating a radiant circle, she explains. And, while the article's title pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the subject matter."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and while all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are unflattering."

The Guardian contacted the periodical for feedback.