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It is a positive story in a periodical that Donald Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The front-page image, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's paean to Donald Trump's part in mediating a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a image of the president taken from below while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"The publication wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the image may be the Worst of All Time", the president posted on Truth Social.

“They removed my hair, and then had a shape drifting on top of my head that resembled a floating crown, but an remarkably little one. Really weird! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and merits public condemnation. What are they doing, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown no secret of his desire to be pictured on the cover of Time and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has extended to his golf courses – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in a few of his establishments.

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

Its angle did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – a chance that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office tweeting a version with the problematic part pixelated.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been released under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. The deal might turn into a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it may represent a strategic turning point for the region.

Meanwhile, a defence of Trump's image has been offered by a surprising origin: the communications chief at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs intervened to denounce the "damaging" picture decision.

It's remarkable: a photograph reveals far more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and hatred –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", she wrote on Telegram.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the case is self-damaging for the magazine", she said.

The response to his queries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a impression of strength stated by Carly Earl, an Australian publication's photo editor.

"The actual photo itself technically is good," she notes. "They chose this shot because they wanted the president to look commanding. Gazing upward gives a sense of their majesty and his expression actually looks reflective and almost somewhat divine. It's rare you see photos of Trump in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has overexposed that part of the image, creating a halo effect, she explains. And, while the article's title pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and even if all of the artistic aspects of the image are highly effective, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The publication reached out to the periodical for comment.