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It is a positive article in a periodical that Donald Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The magazine's cover photo, Trump declared, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time magazine's tribute to Trump's role in mediating a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was accompanied by a image of Trump shot from a low angle and with the sun shining from the back.

The effect, the president asserts, is ""extremely poor".

"Time Magazine wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote on his preferred network.

“My hair was erased, and then there was a shape over my head that appeared as a hovering crown, but extremely small. Really weird! I have always hated being photographed from below, but this is a awful image, and it should be denounced. What is their goal, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time’s cover and achieved this on four occasions in the previous year. The preoccupation has extended to Trump’s golf clubs – in 2017, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers on display at a few of his establishments.

This issue's photograph was shot by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The perspective did no favours for his chin and neck area – an opening that California governor Gavin Newsom seized, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the criticized section blurred.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been released under the opening part of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a release of Palestinian detainees. The arrangement might turn into a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it may represent a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a support for the president’s appearance has been offered by an unexpected source: the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs came forward to denounce the "damaging" picture decision.

It's amazing: a image says more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people filled with spite and resentment –possibly even deviants – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova wrote on her social channel.

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

The explanation for the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with innovatively depicting a feeling of authority stated by an imaging expert, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The image itself is professionally taken," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look impressive. Looking up at a person creates an impression of their grandeur and his expression actually looks contemplative and almost a bit ethereal. It's rare you see pictures of him in such a peaceful state – the picture feels tender."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has bleached that section of the image, producing a glowing aura, she explains. And, while the story’s headline pairs nicely with the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being photographed from below, and while all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are unflattering."

The Guardian reached out to the periodical for a statement.