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This is a favorable feature in a periodical that the president has frequently admired – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, ""could be the worst ever".

Time's tribute to Trump's role in brokering a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a image of the president taken from below and with the sun shining from the back.

The result, the president asserts, is "super bad".

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", he shared on his preferred network.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was a shape over my head that looked like a floating crown, but extremely small. Very odd! I have never liked being captured from low angles, but this is a awful image, and it merits criticism. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed obvious his ambition to appear on Time’s cover and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has extended to the president's resorts – in 2017, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in a few of his establishments.

The most recent cover image was shot by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The perspective highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – a chance that California governor Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team posting a modified photo with the offending area pixelated.

{The hostages from Israel held in Gaza have been freed under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a release of Palestinian detainees. The arrangement might turn into a defining accomplishment of the president's renewed tenure, and it could mark a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

At the same time, a defense of Trump's image has come from a surprising origin: the communications chief at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to denounce the "revealing" photo selection.

It's amazing: a photograph exposes those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Only sick people, people driven by hatred and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", Maria Zakharova shared on her social channel.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical featured on the front, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she added.

The response to Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, and why? – may be something to do with innovatively depicting a impression of strength stated by Carly Earl, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Gazing upward gives a sense of their grandeur and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

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 says. And, while the article's title pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the person photographed."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The news outlet contacted the periodical for a statement.