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It is a favorable feature in a publication that Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The cover picture, he stated, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time magazine's paean to Trump's role in brokering a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a photo of the president captured from underneath while the sun behind his head.

The effect, Trump claims, is "super bad".

"The publication 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 a shape drifting on top of my head that looked like a hovering tiara, but an remarkably little one. Really weird! I consistently avoided taking pictures from below viewpoints, but this is a extremely poor picture, and deserves to be called out. Why did they do this, and why?”

Trump has made no secret of his desire to appear on the cover of Time and did so four times last year. The obsession has extended to the president's resorts – in 2017, the magazine asked him to remove fake issues on display at several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was shot by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on the fifth of October.

Its angle did no favours for Trump’s chin and neck – an opening that the governor of California Newsom did not miss, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the offending area blurred.

{The living Israeli hostages in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, together with a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal may become a signature achievement of his next term, and it may represent a pivotal moment for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defense of Trump's image has been offered by unusual quarters: the spokesperson at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs came forward to criticise the "damaging" photo selection.

It's remarkable: a image says more about those who chose it than about the person in it. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", the official wrote on the messaging platform.

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

The answer to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a impression of strength says Carly Earl, a media professional.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she says. "They selected this photo because they wanted the president to look impressive. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their importance and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It’s not often you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Even though the article's title complements Trump’s expression 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 very strong, the appearance are not flattering."

The news outlet contacted the magazine for comment.