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This is a favorable feature in a periodical that Trump has consistently praised – with one exception. The front-page image, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's tribute to Donald Trump's part in brokering a truce for Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was paired with a photo of the president shot from a low angle while the sun behind his head.

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

"Time wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", he shared on his social media platform.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was a shape over my head that seemed like a hovering crown, but extremely small. Truly strange! I have consistently disliked being shot from underneath, but this is a extremely poor image, and it should be denounced. Why did they choose this, and why?”

The president has expressed obvious his ambition to appear on Time’s cover and achieved this four times last year. The preoccupation has extended to the president's resorts – previously, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages on display at some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was taken by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

Its angle did no favours for his chin and neck area – a chance that the governor of California Gavin Newsom seized, with his press office tweeting a version with the offending area pixelated.

{The hostages from Israel held in Gaza have been released under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement could be a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a key shift for the Middle East.

At the same time, a defense of the president’s appearance has come from unusual quarters: the director of information at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to denounce the "damaging" image choice.

It's remarkable: a photograph says more about those who selected it than about the subject. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have chosen such a photo", the official wrote on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that that magazine used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for the publication", she noted.

The answer to his queries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a sense of power says Carly Earl, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks contemplative and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see photos of Trump in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she explains. And, while the story’s headline pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the individual in question."

Few people appreciate being captured from low angles, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are highly effective, the appearance are not flattering."

The Guardian reached out to the magazine for feedback.