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It is a positive article in a periodical that Donald Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Donald Trump's part in brokering a Gaza ceasefire, headlining its early November edition, was paired with a image of Trump captured from underneath and with the sun shining from the back.

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

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

“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 consistently disliked being captured from low angles, but this is a awful image, and it deserves to be called out. What is their goal, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown obvious his ambition to feature on Time’s cover and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has reached his golf courses – years ago, the editors demanded to remove fake issues on display at several of his venues.

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

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively his chin and neck area – a chance that the governor of California Newsom seized, with the governor's office tweeting a version with the problematic part pixelated.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been released under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, alongside a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement might turn into a major success of his next term, and it may represent a key shift for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defence of his portrayal has come from unusual quarters: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry came forward to denounce the "self-incriminating" picture decision.

It's amazing: a photograph says more about those who chose it than about the subject. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and hatred –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova wrote on her social channel.

"And given the complimentary photos of President Biden that the periodical used on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she noted.

The response to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – might involve creatively capturing a sense of power stated by an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

"The actual photo itself is well-executed," she notes. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Looking up at a person evokes a feeling of their importance and the president's visage actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see photos of Trump in such a serene moment – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s 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 the president's look in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the individual in question."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and although all of the artistic aspects of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The Guardian approached the magazine for feedback.