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This is a positive feature in a periodical that the president has long exalted – with one exception. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's tribute to the president's involvement in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a photo of Trump taken from below while the sun behind his head.

The result, he says, is ""terrible".

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

“My hair was obscured, and then there was an object above my head that seemed like a suspended diadem, but extremely small. Really weird! I have never liked being shot from underneath, but this is a awful image, and it should be denounced. What is their goal, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time’s cover and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. This fixation has made it as far as the president's resorts – in 2017, the magazine asked him to remove fake issues exhibited in several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was captured by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on October 5.

Its angle highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Gavin Newsom seized, with his communications team posting a modified photo with the offending area obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been released under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement might turn into a major success of Trump's second term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for the region.

At the same time, a defence of Trump's image has been offered by a surprising origin: the spokesperson at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to denounce the "damaging" photo selection.

It's remarkable: 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 –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", the official posted on Telegram.

"And given the complimentary photos of Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the case is self-damaging for the publication", she said.

The answer to his queries – what did the editors intend, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a impression of strength says a picture editor, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person evokes a feeling of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost a bit ethereal. It’s not often you see images of the president in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the light from behind has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. And, while the article's title complements Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being captured from low angles, and even if all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the visual appeal are unflattering."

The news outlet reached out to the periodical for feedback.