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It is a positive story in a magazine that Donald Trump has long exalted – but for one catch. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's paean to Trump's role in mediating a truce for Gaza, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a photo of Trump captured from underneath while the sun shining from the back.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the most awful ever", Trump wrote 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 remarkably little one. Quite bizarre! I consistently avoided taking pictures from low perspectives, but this is a super bad picture, and should be criticized. Why did they do this, and why?”

Donald Trump has shown no secret of his desire to appear on Time magazine's front page and accomplished it on four occasions in the previous year. The obsession has reached the president's resorts – previously, the publication requested to remove mocked up covers on display at some of his properties.

The most recent cover image was shot by Graeme Sloane for a news agency at the White House on October 5.

The perspective highlighted negatively Trump’s chin and neck – an opening that the governor of California Newsom seized, with his press office posting a modified photo with the criticized section obscured.

{The hostages from Israel in Gaza have been released under the opening part of Donald Trump's peace plan, alongside a release of Palestinian detainees. The deal could be a signature achievement of Trump's second term, and it might signify a strategic turning point for the Middle East.

At the same time, a support for Trump's image has emerged from a surprising origin: the spokesperson at the Russian foreign ministry stepped in to denounce the "damaging" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a photo exposes those who chose 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 posted on her social channel.

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

The answer to the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – could be related to innovatively depicting a sense of power according to an imaging expert, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is professionally taken," she explains. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look heroic. Gazing upward evokes a feeling of their majesty and Trump’s face actually looks thoughtful and almost a bit ethereal. It’s not often you see images of the president in such a peaceful state – the image has a softness to it."

Trump’s hair appears to “disappear” because the sunlight behind him has bleached that section of the image, generating a radiant circle, she explains. And, while the feature's heading complements Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

"No one likes being shot from underneath, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the visual appeal are unflattering."

The Guardian reached out to the magazine for feedback.