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It is a glowing article in a magazine that the president has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's paean to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was accompanied by a image of the president shot from a low angle and with the sun positioned behind him.

The outcome, the president asserts, is ""terrible".

"The publication wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“My hair was obscured, and then there was something floating my head that appeared as a suspended diadem, but extremely small. Very odd! I have never liked being shot from underneath, but this is a awful image, and it deserves to be called out. What is their goal, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown obvious his ambition to feature on Time’s cover and achieved this four times last year. This fixation has extended to his golf courses – years ago, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers exhibited in some of his properties.

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

The perspective did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – an opportunity that the governor of California Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his press office posting a modified photo with the offending area blurred.

{The hostages from Israel held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. The arrangement may become a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it might signify a key shift for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defence of Trump's image has come from a surprising origin: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry came forward to criticise the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

It's amazing: a image says more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and resentment –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova shared on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that the same publication used on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she added.

The answer to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with artistically representing a sense of power according to a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look heroic. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks thoughtful and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has washed out that area of the image, creating a halo effect, she adds. And, while the article's title pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and although all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The news outlet reached out to the periodical for comment.