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It is a glowing feature in a publication that Donald Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The front-page image, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a photograph of Trump shot from a low angle and with the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", he shared on his social media platform.

“They removed my hair, and then had a shape drifting on top of my head that resembled a floating crown, but an very tiny one. Really weird! I never liked taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a terrible picture, and merits public condemnation. Why did they do this, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to feature on Time’s cover and did so multiple times in the past year. This fixation has reached the president's resorts – years ago, the magazine asked him to remove mocked up covers 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.

Its angle did no favours for Trump’s chin and neck – an opportunity that California governor Newsom seized, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the problematic part blurred.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been released under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement could be a defining accomplishment of Trump's second term, and it could mark a key shift for the region.

Meanwhile, a support for the president’s appearance has been offered by unusual quarters: the communications chief at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to denounce the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a photograph says more about those who chose it than about the person in it. Just unwell persons, people driven by hatred and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", she posted on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that that magazine featured on the front, even with his age-related challenges, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she said.

The response to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – might involve artistically representing a sense of power according to Carly Earl, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is professionally taken," she notes. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look heroic. Gazing upward creates an impression of their majesty 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 peaceful state – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the sunlight behind him has washed out that area of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. Even though the article's title complements his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

Nobody enjoys being photographed from below, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The news outlet approached the periodical for comment.