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It is a favorable article in a periodical that Donald Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Trump's role in mediating a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of the president captured from underneath and with the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the picture may be the lowest quality in history", the president posted on Truth Social.

“My hair was erased, and then there was an object above my head that looked like a hovering crown, but quite miniature. Very odd! I have consistently disliked being captured from low angles, but this is a extremely poor image, and it merits criticism. Why did they choose this, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to his golf courses – in 2017, the publication requested to remove fake issues on display at a few of his establishments.

This issue's photograph was shot by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the White House on October 5.

The perspective highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Newsom did not miss, with his press office sharing an altered image with the problematic part pixelated.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, together with a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal may become a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defence of Trump's image has come from a surprising origin: the communications chief at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to criticise the "revealing" picture decision.

It's amazing: a photo says more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that that magazine featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she said.

The answer to Trump’s questions – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a sense of power according to Carly Earl, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she explains. "They selected this photo because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Staring up at someone gives a sense of their importance and his expression actually looks thoughtful and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Even though the feature's heading marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and while all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are not flattering."

The publication contacted Time magazine for feedback.