'The most terrible ever': Donald Trump rails against Time magazine's 'extremely poor' cover picture.

It is a favorable article in a periodical that Trump has consistently praised – but for one catch. The front-page image, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time's praise to Donald Trump's part in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, leading its 10 November issue, was presented alongside a photograph of Trump shot from a low angle while the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", he shared on his social media platform.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that resembled a hovering tiara, but an very tiny one. Really weird! I consistently avoided taking pictures from below viewpoints, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out. What is their intention, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to feature on Time magazine's front page and did so four times last year. The obsession has reached the president's resorts – years ago, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages on display at some of his properties.

This issue's photograph was shot by a photographer for Bloomberg at the presidential residence on 5 October.

The perspective did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – an opening that California governor Newsom took advantage of, with his press office posting a modified photo with the criticized section obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, in exchange for a Palestinian prisoner release. The arrangement may become a defining accomplishment 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 come from an unexpected source: the spokesperson at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs came forward to criticise the "self-incriminating" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a image reveals far more about those who selected it than about the individual pictured. Just unwell persons, people filled with spite and animosity –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", the official posted on Telegram.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that that magazine featured on the front, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she added.

The response to Trump’s questions – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a sense of power according to an imaging expert, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself is well-executed," she says. "They selected this photo because they wanted Trump to look commanding. Staring up at someone evokes a feeling of their grandeur and Trump’s face actually looks reflective and almost a bit ethereal. It's rare you see images of the president in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

His hair appears to “disappear” because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, generating a radiant circle, she says. Even though the feature's heading marries well with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being photographed from below, and although all of the thematic components of the image are quite powerful, the appearance are not flattering."

The publication contacted the periodical for comment.