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This is a favorable article 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 paean to the president's involvement in facilitating a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a image of Trump captured from underneath while the sun shining from the back.

The outcome, he says, is "super bad".

"The publication wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his preferred network.

“My hair was ‘disappeared’, and then there was something floating my head that looked like a hovering crown, but very tiny. Truly strange! I have consistently disliked being shot from underneath, but this is a extremely poor image, and it should be denounced. What are they doing, and why?”

Trump has made clear his wish to feature on the cover of Time and achieved this multiple times in the past year. The obsession has reached Trump’s golf clubs – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages on display at several of his venues.

This issue's photograph was taken by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on October 5.

Its angle highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – a chance that the governor of California Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his communications team posting a modified photo with the offending area obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been liberated under the opening part of Donald Trump's peace plan, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. The deal may become a signature achievement of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a key shift for the region.

Meanwhile, a defense of the president’s appearance has been offered by a surprising origin: the communications chief at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to condemn the "self-incriminating" picture decision.

"It’s astonishing: a photo says more about those who picked it than about the subject. Just unwell persons, people driven by hatred and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have chosen such a photo", the official posted on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the case is self-damaging for Time", she added.

The answer to his queries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a sense of power according to a picture editor, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself is professionally taken," she says. "They chose this shot because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their grandeur and his expression actually looks thoughtful and almost somewhat divine. It's uncommon you see pictures of him in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

Trump’s hair appears to “disappear” because the light from behind has overexposed that part of the image, generating a radiant circle, she says. And, while the feature's heading complements the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the subject matter."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and while all of the thematic components of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not complimentary."

The publication reached out to Time magazine for comment.