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

Time magazine's tribute to Donald Trump's part in mediating a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was accompanied by a photo of Trump shot from a low angle while the sun positioned behind him.

The outcome, he says, is ""extremely poor".

"Time Magazine wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“They removed my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an remarkably little one. Quite bizarre! I consistently avoided taking pictures from below viewpoints, but this is a super bad picture, and should be criticized. Why did they do this, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to feature on the cover of Time and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to his golf courses – years ago, the publication requested to remove fake issues on display at some of his properties.

The most recent cover image was captured by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

Its angle highlighted negatively Trump’s chin and neck – an opportunity that California governor Newsom did not miss, with his communications team tweeting a version with the problematic part pixelated.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been released under the initial stage of Trump's ceasefire agreement, in exchange for a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement may become a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it might signify a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defense of the president’s appearance has emerged from unusual quarters: the spokesperson at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to criticise the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

It's remarkable: a image exposes those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and hatred –perhaps even perverts – could have chosen such a photo", she wrote on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that that magazine featured on the front, even with his age-related challenges, the case is self-damaging for Time", she noted.

The response to the president's inquiries – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve innovatively depicting a sense of power stated by an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself technically is good," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted trump to look commanding. Staring up at someone gives a sense of their majesty and his expression actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see images of the president in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

The president's hair looks erased because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Even though the article's title pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the appearance are not flattering."

The Guardian contacted the magazine for feedback.