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It is a favorable story in a publication that the president has frequently admired – with one exception. The front-page image, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's tribute to Trump's role in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a photo of Trump captured from underneath and with the sun positioned behind him.

The effect, he says, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the photo may be the Worst of All Time", the president posted on Truth Social.

“They eliminated my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that resembled a hovering tiara, but an extremely small one. Really weird! I always disliked taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a extremely poor picture, and should be criticized. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to appear on Time’s cover and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to his golf courses – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove mocked up covers on display at some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the presidential residence on October 5.

Its angle did no favours for Trump’s chin and neck – an opening that the governor of California Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the offending area pixelated.

{The living Israeli hostages in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The deal could be a signature achievement of the president's renewed tenure, and it could mark a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

At the same time, a defence of Trump's image has come from an unexpected source: the spokesperson at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to condemn the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a image reveals far more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and animosity –perhaps even perverts – could have picked this picture", she posted on the messaging platform.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she said.

The response to Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a feeling of authority according to a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself technically is good," she says. "They selected this photo because they wanted the president to look impressive. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their importance and Trump’s face actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the sunlight behind him has washed out that area of the image, creating a halo effect, she adds. Although the article's title marries well with the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and although all of the conceptual elements of the image are highly effective, the visual appeal are not complimentary."

The Guardian contacted the magazine for comment.