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This is a favorable story in a magazine that Donald Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The cover picture, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in facilitating a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a image of the president shot from a low angle while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“My hair was obscured, and then there was something floating my head that appeared as a suspended diadem, but very tiny. Really weird! I have never liked being photographed from below, but this is a extremely poor image, and it merits criticism. What is their goal, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to appear on the cover of Time and did so four times last year. The preoccupation has made it as far as the president's resorts – years ago, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the White House on October 5.

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to his chin and neck area – an opening that California governor Gavin Newsom seized, with his press office tweeting a version with the problematic part pixelated.

{The living Israeli hostages in Gaza have been liberated under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The arrangement might turn into a major success of Trump's second term, and it may represent a pivotal moment for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defence of his portrayal has come from unusual quarters: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office intervened to criticise the "damaging" image choice.

"It’s astonishing: a image says more about those who chose it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and hatred –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", she shared on Telegram.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she added.

The response to Trump’s questions – why did they choose this, and why? – might involve innovatively depicting a sense of power according to a picture editor, a media professional.

The image itself is well-executed," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Looking up at a person creates an impression of their majesty and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

His hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has bleached that section of the image, producing a glowing aura, she says. Although the story’s headline marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the individual in question."

"No one likes being captured from low angles, and while all of the artistic aspects of the image are very strong, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The Guardian contacted the magazine for a statement.