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It is a favorable feature in a publication that Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's paean to the president's involvement in facilitating a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was accompanied by a photo of Trump captured from underneath while the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time wrote a relatively good story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", he shared on his preferred network.

“They removed my hair, and then had a shape drifting on top of my head that appeared as a hovering tiara, but an very tiny one. Quite bizarre! I never liked taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to appear on Time magazine's front page and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has made it as far as the president's resorts – in 2017, the magazine asked him to remove fake issues on display at a few of his establishments.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

The perspective was unflattering to the president's jawline and throat – an opportunity that the governor of California Newsom seized, with his communications team posting a modified photo with the problematic part pixelated.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been freed under the initial stage of Donald Trump's peace plan, together with a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement could be a signature achievement of Trump's second term, and it could mark a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a defense of the president’s appearance has emerged from unusual quarters: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office stepped in to criticise the "damaging" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a image reveals far more about those who selected it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people obsessed with malice and hatred –maybe even degenerates – could have picked this picture", she posted on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the same publication featured on the front, even with his age-related challenges, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she added.

The explanation for the president's inquiries – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve artistically representing a sense of power according to a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted the president to look impressive. Looking up at a person creates an impression of their grandeur and Trump’s face actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she adds. Even though the story’s headline pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the individual in question."

"No one likes being photographed from below, and although all of the thematic components of the image are highly effective, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The publication approached the magazine for comment.