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This is a favorable feature in a magazine that the president has frequently admired – with one exception. The front-page image, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Donald Trump's part in mediating a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of the president taken from below while the sun behind his head.

The result, the president asserts, is "super bad".

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“My hair was erased, and then there was something floating my head that appeared as a floating crown, but quite miniature. Truly strange! I have always hated being photographed from below, but this is a extremely poor image, and it deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown obvious his ambition to be pictured on the cover of Time and accomplished it four times last year. This fixation has extended to his golf courses – previously, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages on display at some of his properties.

This issue's photograph was taken by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The shot's viewpoint did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the criticized section obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The arrangement might turn into a major success of Trump's second term, and it could mark a key shift for the Middle East.

Simultaneously, a defense of his portrayal has been offered by unusual quarters: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to denounce the "damaging" picture decision.

It's amazing: a photo exposes those who selected it than about the subject. Only sick people, people filled with spite and animosity –maybe even degenerates – could have chosen such a photo", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the periodical used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she added.

The response to the president's inquiries – what did the editors intend, and why? – may be something to do with innovatively depicting a sense of power stated by a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted Trump to look impressive. Looking up at a person creates an impression of their majesty and the president's visage actually looks thoughtful and almost slightly angelic. It’s not often you see images of the president in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, producing a glowing aura, she adds. Even though the feature's heading complements Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and although all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are unflattering."

The Guardian approached the periodical for comment.