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It is a favorable article in a periodical that Donald Trump has long exalted – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time magazine's paean to Donald Trump's part in mediating a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a photograph of the president captured from underneath while the sun positioned behind him.

The outcome, Trump claims, is ""extremely poor".

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that appeared as a hovering tiara, but an remarkably little one. Really weird! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and should be criticized. Why did they do this, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to be pictured on Time’s cover and accomplished it four times last year. The obsession has reached his golf courses – previously, the publication requested to remove fake issues exhibited in a few of his establishments.

The most recent cover image was shot by a photographer for a news agency at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively his chin and neck area – an opening that California governor Newsom did not miss, with his communications team tweeting a version with the offending area blurred.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been released under the initial stage of Trump's ceasefire agreement, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. The deal could be a signature achievement of the president's renewed tenure, and it may represent a key shift for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defence of the president’s appearance has come from unusual quarters: the communications chief at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to denounce the "damaging" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a photograph reveals far more about those who chose it than about the subject. Only sick people, people driven by hatred and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", she posted on Telegram.

"And given the complimentary photos of Biden that that magazine used on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the case is self-damaging for the magazine", she noted.

The explanation for his queries – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve artistically representing a sense of power according to Carly Earl, an Australian publication's photo editor.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look impressive. Looking up at a person creates an impression of their grandeur and Trump’s face actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see photos of Trump in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

His hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Although the article's title pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the subject matter."

"No one likes being captured from low angles, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The publication approached Time magazine for comment.