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This is a positive feature in a publication that Donald Trump has consistently praised – except for one issue. The cover picture, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time's paean to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a Gaza ceasefire, leading its 10 November issue, was accompanied by a photograph of Trump shot from a low angle while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", the president posted on his social media platform.

“They eliminated 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 underneath angles, but this is a terrible picture, and should be criticized. Why did they do this, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown no secret of his desire to appear on Time magazine's front page and did so four times last year. The preoccupation has made it as far as the president's resorts – previously, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages on display at several of his venues.

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

Its angle did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – a chance that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team tweeting a version with the offending area blurred.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement might turn into a defining accomplishment of Trump's second term, and it may represent a key shift for the region.

At the same time, a support for the president’s appearance has come from unusual quarters: the director of information at Moscow's diplomatic office intervened to denounce the "self-incriminating" picture decision.

It's amazing: a photo exposes those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people obsessed with malice and animosity –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", she shared on Telegram.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that the same publication displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the case is self-damaging for Time", she added.

The explanation for Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve innovatively depicting a sense of power according to an imaging expert, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their grandeur and his expression actually looks thoughtful and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has washed out that area of the image, producing a glowing aura, she adds. And, while the article's title pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

Few people appreciate being captured from low angles, and although all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The news outlet reached out to the magazine for feedback.