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This is a positive story in a publication that Trump has frequently admired – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's tribute to Trump's role in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was accompanied by a image of Trump shot from a low angle while the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the photo may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his preferred network.

“My hair was erased, and then there was a shape over my head that appeared as a floating crown, but very tiny. Truly strange! I have never liked being shot from underneath, but this is a awful image, and it merits criticism. Why did they choose this, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown no secret of his desire to be pictured on the cover of Time and achieved this multiple times in the past year. The preoccupation has made it as far as his golf courses – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove mocked up covers on display at several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was captured by a photographer for a news agency at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The perspective did no favours for his chin and neck area – an opening that the governor of California Newsom did not miss, with his communications team posting a modified photo with the offending area blurred.

{The living Israeli hostages in Gaza have been released under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal could be a signature achievement of his next term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for the region.

At the same time, a defense of the president’s appearance has emerged from unusual quarters: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry intervened to denounce the "revealing" image choice.

It's amazing: a image reveals far more about those who chose it than about the person in it. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", she wrote on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that that magazine featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she noted.

The response to Trump’s questions – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – might involve innovatively depicting a sense of power says a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The image itself is professionally taken," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look commanding. Gazing upward gives a sense of their grandeur and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It's rare you see photos of Trump in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

His hair seems to vanish because the rear illumination has overexposed that part of the image, creating a halo effect, she explains. Although the feature's heading marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

Nobody enjoys being photographed from below, and while all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are unflattering."

The news outlet reached out to Time magazine for feedback.