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This is a favorable feature in a magazine that Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The cover picture, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a photo of the president shot from a low angle while the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", he shared on Truth Social.

“My hair was erased, and then there was something floating my head that seemed like a hovering crown, but quite miniature. Really weird! I have never liked being photographed from below, but this is a super bad image, and it deserves to be called out. Why did they choose this, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown clear his wish to be pictured on the cover of Time and accomplished it four times last year. The obsession has reached his golf courses – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove mocked up covers exhibited in a few of his establishments.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on the fifth of October.

Its angle did no favours for his chin and neck area – an opportunity that California governor Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his communications team posting a modified photo with the criticized section pixelated.

{The living Israeli hostages in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, alongside 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.

Simultaneously, a defence of his portrayal has been offered by unusual quarters: the director of information at the Russian foreign ministry intervened to condemn the "revealing" photo selection.

It's remarkable: a photograph says more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she added.

The response to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with innovatively depicting a impression of strength says Carly Earl, a media professional.

The photograph technically is professionally taken," she says. "They chose this shot because they wanted trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their importance and his expression actually looks reflective and almost somewhat divine. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair appears to “disappear” because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. Although the article's title complements Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and although all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are unflattering."

The Guardian reached out to the periodical for a statement.