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It is a positive story in a publication that the president has consistently praised – except for one issue. The front-page image, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's tribute to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a Gaza ceasefire, headlining its early November edition, was accompanied by a photograph of Trump taken from below while the sun shining from the back.

The effect, the president asserts, is "super bad".

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

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was something floating my head that looked like a hovering crown, but very tiny. Very odd! I have never liked being captured from low angles, but this is a super bad image, and it deserves to be called out. What is their goal, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown clear his wish to be pictured on Time’s cover and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has reached Trump’s golf clubs – previously, the editors demanded to remove fake issues on display at a few of his establishments.

The most recent cover image was shot by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively Trump’s chin and neck – an opportunity that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with his communications team tweeting a version with the offending area pixelated.

{The Israeli captives in Gaza have been freed under the initial stage of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The arrangement may become a defining accomplishment of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a key shift for the Middle East.

Simultaneously, a defense of Trump's image has come from a surprising origin: the communications chief at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs came forward to criticise the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a photograph reveals far more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and hatred –possibly even deviants – could have chosen such a photo", she wrote on the messaging platform.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that the same publication used on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for the magazine", she said.

The explanation for the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a impression of strength according to Carly Earl, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look commanding. Staring up at someone gives a sense of their importance and the president's visage actually looks reflective and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

His hair seems to vanish because the light from behind has overexposed that part of the image, creating a halo effect, she explains. And, while the story’s headline marries well with the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being photographed from below, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The news outlet contacted the magazine for comment.