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This is a glowing story in a periodical that the president has long exalted – with one exception. The cover picture, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's tribute to Trump's role in facilitating a truce for Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was paired with a image of Trump captured from underneath while the sun shining from the back.

The result, Trump claims, is ""extremely poor".

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", he shared on his preferred network.

“My hair was erased, and then there was a shape over my head that seemed like a suspended diadem, but very tiny. Really weird! I have consistently disliked being photographed from below, but this is a extremely poor image, and it merits criticism. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to be pictured on the cover of Time and achieved this four times last year. The obsession has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove fake issues on display at a few of his establishments.

This issue's photograph was taken by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on the fifth of October.

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to the president's jawline and throat – a chance that California governor Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team tweeting a version with the problematic part obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been released under the initial stage of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The deal might turn into a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a defense of the president’s appearance has been offered by an unexpected source: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to condemn the "revealing" photo selection.

It's amazing: a photograph exposes those who picked it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and hatred –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that the same publication used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she said.

The explanation for Trump’s questions – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a feeling of authority stated by an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted the president to look heroic. Looking up at a person evokes a feeling of their majesty and his expression actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see pictures of him in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

His hair looks erased because the sunlight behind him has bleached that section of the image, generating a radiant circle, she explains. Although the article's title marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the appearance are unflattering."

The Guardian contacted the periodical for a statement.