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This is a glowing story in a publication that Donald Trump has frequently admired – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Trump's role in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a photograph of Trump taken from below while the sun positioned behind him.

The outcome, the president asserts, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the picture may be the lowest quality in history", the president posted on Truth Social.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was an object above my head that appeared as a hovering crown, but extremely small. Very odd! I have consistently disliked being photographed from below, but this is a super bad image, and it deserves to be called out. Why did they choose this, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and accomplished it multiple times in the past year. The obsession has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – in 2017, the magazine asked him to remove mocked up covers on display at a few of his establishments.

The most recent cover image was shot by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on October 5.

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to his chin and neck area – an opening that the governor of California Newsom seized, with his communications team tweeting a version with the problematic part obscured.

{The hostages from Israel held in Gaza have been freed under the initial stage of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal might turn into a signature achievement of his next term, and it may represent a key shift for the region.

Simultaneously, a defense of the president’s appearance has come from an unexpected source: the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to criticise the "damaging" photo selection.

It's remarkable: a photo reveals far more about those who selected it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and animosity –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova posted on her social channel.

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

The response to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a impression of strength stated by a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she explains. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person evokes a feeling of their importance and his expression actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It's rare you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

His hair seems to vanish because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, producing a glowing aura, she explains. And, while the story’s headline pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

"No one likes being captured from low angles, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are very strong, the appearance are unflattering."

The publication approached Time magazine for comment.