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

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a photograph of the president captured from underneath and with the sun positioned behind him.

The result, he says, is "super bad".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his preferred network.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had a shape drifting on top of my head that looked like a suspended coronet, but an remarkably little one. Truly strange! I consistently avoided taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a terrible picture, and merits public condemnation. What are they doing, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown no secret of his desire to be pictured on Time’s cover and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has made it as far as Trump’s golf clubs – previously, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers on display at several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was captured by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on October 5.

Its angle did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – an opening that California governor Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the offending area obscured.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been released under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The arrangement may become a signature achievement of his next term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

At the same time, a defense of his portrayal has come from a surprising origin: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to denounce the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's remarkable: a image exposes those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Only sick people, people driven by hatred and animosity –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", the official shared on her social channel.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that that magazine featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she noted.

The answer to Trump’s questions – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – might involve innovatively depicting a impression of strength stated by a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look heroic. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It’s not often you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the sunlight behind him has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. And, while the article's title complements the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

Few people appreciate being shot from underneath, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The news outlet reached out to Time magazine for comment.