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It is a favorable feature in a publication that the president has long exalted – with one exception. The front-page image, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's paean to Trump's role in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a photo of the president shot from a low angle while the sun behind his head.

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

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", he shared on his social media platform.

“My hair was erased, and then there was a shape over my head that seemed like a floating crown, but quite miniature. Truly strange! I have always hated being captured from low angles, but this is a extremely poor image, and it deserves to be called out. Why did they choose this, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to appear on Time’s cover and accomplished it four times last year. This fixation has made it as far as Trump’s golf clubs – in 2017, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in a few of his establishments.

The latest edition’s photo was shot by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively Trump’s chin and neck – a chance that the governor of California Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his press office posting a modified photo with the criticized section blurred.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement may become a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a strategic turning point for the region.

Simultaneously, a defence of Trump's image has been offered by a surprising origin: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to criticise the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

It's amazing: a photo says more about those who chose it than about the person in it. Just unwell persons, people obsessed with malice and animosity –perhaps even perverts – could have picked this picture", she shared on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the same publication featured on the front, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she added.

The answer to his queries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a sense of power stated by a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she says. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their majesty and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It's uncommon you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

His hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has washed out that area of the image, creating a halo effect, she adds. And, while the article's title complements his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are very strong, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The news outlet contacted the periodical for comment.