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It is a positive article in a publication that Donald Trump has consistently praised – but for one catch. The cover picture, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time's paean to the president's involvement in facilitating a truce for Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was paired with a photo of Trump captured from underneath and with the sun behind his head.

The result, Trump claims, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an very tiny one. Really weird! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a extremely poor picture, and should be criticized. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to feature on Time magazine's front page and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has made it as far as his golf courses – in 2017, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers exhibited in some of his properties.

This issue's photograph was taken by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on the fifth of October.

Its angle was unflattering to his chin and neck area – an opening that the governor of California Newsom did not miss, with his communications team tweeting a version with the offending area pixelated.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been released under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement might turn into a major success of Trump's second term, and it could mark a pivotal moment for the region.

Simultaneously, a support for Trump's image has emerged from unusual quarters: the spokesperson at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to condemn the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a image says more about those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and animosity –perhaps even perverts – could have picked this picture", the official posted on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that that magazine used on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she said.

The response to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a sense of power says a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

"The actual photo itself is well-executed," she says. "They chose this shot because they wanted trump to look heroic. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their grandeur and his expression actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's uncommon you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

His hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has bleached that section of the image, producing a glowing aura, she adds. Even though the feature's heading pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are unflattering."

The news outlet approached the periodical for a statement.