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It is a glowing article in a periodical that Donald Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The magazine's cover photo, the president decreed, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's tribute to the president's involvement in facilitating a Gaza ceasefire, headlining its early November edition, was paired with a image of the president captured from underneath while the sun positioned behind him.

The outcome, he says, is ""extremely poor".

"The publication wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the Worst of All Time", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“My hair was obscured, and then there was something floating my head that looked like a floating crown, but extremely small. Really weird! I have always hated being shot from underneath, but this is a awful image, and it merits criticism. What are they doing, and why?”

The president has expressed clear his wish to appear on Time magazine's front page and did so four times last year. This fixation has reached his golf courses – years ago, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages shown in several of his venues.

The most recent cover image was captured by a photographer for a news agency at the White House on 5 October.

The shot's viewpoint was unflattering to his chin and neck area – an opportunity that the governor of California Gavin Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office tweeting a version with the offending area pixelated.

{The Israeli captives held in Gaza have been released under the initial stage of the president's diplomatic initiative, together with a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement could be a defining accomplishment of his next term, and it could mark a key shift for that part of the world.

Simultaneously, a support for Trump's image has been offered by an unexpected source: the communications chief at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs came forward to condemn the "damaging" photo selection.

"It’s astonishing: a image says more about those who picked it than about the person in it. Only sick people, people filled with spite and hatred –possibly even deviants – could have picked this picture", she posted on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of President Biden that the same publication displayed on the cover, despite his physical infirmity, the story is simply self-incriminating for the publication", she added.

The response to the president's inquiries – why did they choose this, and why? – may be something to do with artistically representing a sense of power stated by a picture editor, an Australian publication's photo editor.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their grandeur and the president's visage actually looks reflective and almost slightly angelic. It's uncommon you see images of the president in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

Trump’s hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, producing a glowing aura, she explains. And, while the feature's heading complements the president's look in the image, "you can’t always please the subject matter."

Few people appreciate being shot from underneath, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are highly effective, the visual appeal are not flattering."

The Guardian reached out to the periodical for a statement.