'The all-time low': Donald Trump criticizes Time's 'extremely poor' cover image.

It is a favorable feature in a magazine that the president has long exalted – with one exception. The front-page image, Trump declared, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's praise to Donald Trump's part in brokering a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was paired with a photograph of Trump taken from below and with the sun behind his head.

The outcome, Trump claims, is "super bad".

"The publication wrote a quite favorable story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", the president posted on his social media platform.

“My hair was erased, and then there was an object above my head that looked like a hovering crown, but quite miniature. Very odd! I have consistently disliked being shot from underneath, but this is a super bad image, and it deserves to be called out. What is their goal, and why?”

Trump has made no secret of his desire to appear on Time’s cover and achieved this four times last year. The preoccupation has made it as far as the president's resorts – in 2017, the editors demanded to remove fake issues exhibited in some of his properties.

The latest edition’s photo was taken by a photographer for a news agency at the presidential residence on October 5.

Its angle did no favours for Trump’s chin and neck – an opening that California governor Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the problematic part obscured.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been freed under the initial stage of Trump's ceasefire agreement, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. This agreement may become a signature achievement of his next term, and it may represent a pivotal moment for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a defence of Trump's image has emerged from an unexpected source: the communications chief at Moscow's diplomatic office came forward to criticise the "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a image says more about those who chose it than about the person in it. Only sick people, people obsessed with malice and animosity –maybe even degenerates – could have chosen such a photo", she posted on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that that magazine displayed on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the situation is self-revealing for Time", she said.

The explanation for his queries – what did the editors intend, and why? – might involve artistically representing a sense of power says a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The image itself is well-executed," she explains. "They selected this photo because they wanted Trump to look heroic. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their importance and his expression actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It's uncommon you see images of the president in such a calm instance – the picture feels tender."

His hair looks erased because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, producing a glowing aura, she adds. Although the article's title marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "you can’t always please the person photographed."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and although all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are not complimentary."

The Guardian contacted Time magazine for a statement.