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This is a positive story in a publication that the president has consistently praised – with one exception. The cover picture, he stated, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's praise to the president's involvement in facilitating a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of the president shot from a low angle while the sun positioned behind him.

The result, he says, is ""terrible".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the image 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 resembled a hovering tiara, but an remarkably little one. Truly strange! I always disliked taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a terrible picture, and should be criticized. What are they doing, and why?”

Trump has made clear his wish to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and achieved this four times last year. This fixation has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – years ago, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers on display at a few of his establishments.

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

The perspective highlighted negatively his chin and neck area – an opening that California governor Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office tweeting a version with the offending area obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been liberated under the initial stage of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The deal might turn into a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it may represent a key shift for the Middle East.

At the same time, a support for Trump's image has emerged from unusual quarters: the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to denounce the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

It's amazing: a photograph reveals far more about those who selected it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", she wrote on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that the same publication displayed on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the case is self-damaging for the magazine", she noted.

The explanation for his queries – what did the editors intend, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a impression of strength says an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look impressive. Gazing upward gives a sense of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a peaceful state – the picture feels tender."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. And, while the story’s headline pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being shot from underneath, and while all of the artistic aspects of the image are highly effective, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The Guardian approached the magazine for a statement.