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This is a favorable story in a periodical that Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The front-page image, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Donald Trump's part in mediating a truce for Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was paired with a photograph of Trump shot from a low angle and with the sun behind his head.

The effect, the president asserts, is ""extremely poor".

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", Trump wrote on his preferred network.

“They eliminated my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that appeared as a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Quite bizarre! I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a terrible picture, and should be criticized. Why did they do this, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to feature on Time’s cover and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to the president's resorts – years ago, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers shown in several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was taken by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the presidential residence on 5 October.

Its angle was unflattering to Trump’s chin and neck – an opening that California governor Newsom did not miss, with his press office posting a modified photo with the criticized section blurred.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been released under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement could be a signature achievement of his next term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defence of Trump's image has emerged from an unexpected source: the spokesperson at Moscow's diplomatic office intervened to denounce the "revealing" picture decision.

"It’s astonishing: a photo reveals far more about those who picked it than about the subject. Just unwell persons, people obsessed with malice and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", Maria Zakharova wrote on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that that magazine featured on the front, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for the magazine", she said.

The answer to the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a feeling of authority according to an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted the president to look commanding. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their majesty and his expression actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see pictures of him in such a peaceful state – the image has a softness to it."

His hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has overexposed that part of the image, producing a glowing aura, she explains. And, while the story’s headline marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the individual in question."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are highly effective, the appearance are not complimentary."

The publication reached out to Time magazine for feedback.