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This is a positive feature in a periodical that Donald Trump has long exalted – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's tribute to Trump's role in brokering a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was paired with a photograph of Trump captured from underneath and with the sun positioned behind him.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the most awful ever", the president posted on his preferred network.

“My hair was erased, and then there was an object above my head that looked like a suspended diadem, but quite miniature. Truly strange! I have never liked being shot from underneath, but this is a extremely poor image, and it deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time magazine's front page and did so on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has reached his golf courses – years ago, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in some of his properties.

This issue's photograph was captured by a photographer for a news agency at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

Its angle was unflattering to the president's jawline and throat – an opportunity that the governor of California Newsom did not miss, with the governor's office posting a modified photo with the problematic part blurred.

{The living Israeli hostages 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 defining accomplishment of his next term, and it may represent a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a defense of the president’s appearance has been offered by unusual quarters: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to condemn the "self-incriminating" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a photograph exposes those who picked it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people obsessed with malice and resentment –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", she wrote on Telegram.

"And given the complimentary photos of Biden that that magazine displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the situation is self-revealing for the publication", she noted.

The explanation for his queries – what did the editors intend, and why? – could be related to artistically representing a sense of power according to an imaging expert, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is professionally taken," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person gives a sense of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see photos of Trump in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

His hair looks erased because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, creating a halo effect, she says. Even though the article's title pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

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

The publication reached out to the periodical for comment.