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It is a glowing story in a magazine that Donald Trump has consistently praised – with one exception. The magazine's cover photo, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's tribute to Trump's role in facilitating a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a photograph of the president taken from below and with the sun shining from the back.

The outcome, he says, is ""extremely poor".

"The publication wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the lowest quality in history", he shared on his preferred network.

“They removed my hair, and then had an object hovering on top of my head that resembled a floating crown, but an remarkably little one. Quite bizarre! I consistently avoided taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a terrible picture, and deserves to be called out. What is their intention, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has made it as far as the president's resorts – previously, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages on display at several of his venues.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

Its angle highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Gavin Newsom did not miss, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the criticized section obscured.

{The Israeli captives detained in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement could be a major success of Trump's second term, and it could mark a pivotal moment for that part of the world.

At the same time, a defence of his portrayal has come from an unexpected source: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office intervened to denounce the "self-incriminating" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a photo exposes those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", she shared on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the same publication featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she added.

The response to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – may be something to do with creatively capturing a impression of strength stated by an imaging expert, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is professionally taken," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their majesty and his expression actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It's rare you see images of the president in such a peaceful state – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the rear illumination has overexposed that part of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Although the article's title pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "you can’t always please the individual in question."

Few people appreciate being captured from low angles, and although all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are not flattering."

The Guardian reached out to Time magazine for feedback.