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It is a positive feature in a publication that Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's praise to Trump's role in mediating a Gaza ceasefire, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a photograph of the president taken from below and with the sun behind his head.

The outcome, the president asserts, is ""extremely poor".

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

“They eliminated my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an very tiny one. Truly strange! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a extremely poor picture, and deserves to be called out. Why did they do this, and why?”

Trump has made clear his wish to appear on Time magazine's front page and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has extended to the president's resorts – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages shown in several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was shot by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

The perspective highlighted negatively his chin and neck area – a chance that the governor of California Gavin Newsom seized, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the offending area pixelated.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Trump's ceasefire agreement, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The arrangement could be a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a key shift for the region.

Meanwhile, a defence of the president’s appearance has come from unusual quarters: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to condemn the "revealing" photo selection.

It's amazing: a photograph reveals far more about those who selected it than about the person in it. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have chosen such a photo", the official shared on her social channel.

"And given the complimentary photos of Biden that the same publication used on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she noted.

The response to his queries – what did the editors intend, and why? – could be related to artistically representing a impression of strength stated by a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself technically is good," she explains. "They selected this photo because they wanted the president to look impressive. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks reflective and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a peaceful state – the picture feels tender."

His hair looks erased because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. And, while the story’s headline complements Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

"No one likes being captured from low angles, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The publication contacted the periodical for comment.