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It is a positive feature in a publication that Donald Trump has long exalted – but for one catch. The cover picture, the president decreed, ""could be the worst ever".

Time magazine's paean to Donald Trump's part in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a photograph of the president captured from underneath while the sun shining from the back.

The result, Trump claims, is ""extremely poor".

"Time Magazine wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the picture may be the Worst of All Time", he shared on his preferred network.

“My hair was erased, and then there was something floating my head that looked like a hovering crown, but extremely small. Truly strange! I have never liked being shot from underneath, but this is a super bad image, and it should be denounced. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed obvious his ambition to be pictured on Time’s cover and did so multiple times in the past year. The obsession has extended to his golf courses – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove fabricated front pages exhibited in several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was taken by a photographer for a news agency at the presidential residence on the fifth of October.

The shot's viewpoint highlighted negatively the president's jawline and throat – an opening that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the problematic part blurred.

{The hostages from Israel detained in Gaza have been liberated under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The arrangement could be a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it may represent a strategic turning point for that part of the world.

Meanwhile, a defence of Trump's image has been offered by an unexpected source: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to criticise the "revealing" image choice.

It's remarkable: a image reveals far more about those who chose it than about the person in it. Just unwell persons, people driven by hatred and hatred –perhaps even perverts – could have selected such an image", Maria Zakharova posted on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that the periodical featured on the front, even with his age-related challenges, the story is simply self-incriminating for Time", she added.

The answer to the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a feeling of authority says Carly Earl, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The photograph technically technically is good," she says. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks contemplative and almost slightly angelic. It's rare you see images of the president in such a calm instance – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the light from behind has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she explains. Although the story’s headline pairs nicely with his facial expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and while all of the thematic components of the image are very strong, the visual appeal are unflattering."

The Guardian contacted the periodical for a statement.