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It is a glowing feature in a magazine that the president has long exalted – except for one issue. The front-page image, he stated, ""might be the most terrible in history".

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

The result, the president asserts, is ""terrible".

"The publication wrote a relatively good story about me, but the image may be the most awful ever", the president posted on his social media platform.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a hovering tiara, but an very tiny one. Quite bizarre! I always disliked taking pictures from below viewpoints, but this is a terrible picture, and merits public condemnation. What is their intention, and why?”

The president has expressed no secret of his desire to appear on the cover of Time and accomplished it multiple times in the past year. This fixation has made it as far as his golf courses – years ago, the editors demanded to remove mocked up covers exhibited in some of his properties.

This issue's photograph was captured by a photographer for Bloomberg at the White House on 5 October.

Its angle did no favours for his chin and neck area – an opportunity that California governor Newsom seized, with his communications team tweeting a version with the problematic part pixelated.

{The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been freed under the opening part of Trump's ceasefire agreement, in exchange for a release of Palestinian detainees. This agreement might turn into a signature achievement of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

At the same time, 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 "self-incriminating" image choice.

It's amazing: a image reveals far more about those who selected it than about the person in it. Only sick people, people filled with spite and resentment –maybe even degenerates – could have chosen such a photo", Maria Zakharova wrote on her social channel.

In light of the positive pictures of Biden that the periodical displayed on the cover, notwithstanding his health issues, the story is simply self-incriminating for the magazine", she added.

The response to the president's inquiries – what were Time’s editors doing, and why? – could be related to creatively capturing a sense of power stated by a picture editor, Guardian Australia’s picture editor.

The photograph technically is well-executed," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted the president to look commanding. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their importance and Trump’s face actually looks contemplative and almost somewhat divine. It's uncommon you see pictures of him in such a peaceful state – the photo appears gentle."

Trump’s hair looks erased because the sunlight behind him has washed out that area of the image, producing a glowing aura, she explains. And, while the story’s headline pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the subject matter."

Nobody enjoys being captured from low angles, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are very strong, the aesthetics are not flattering."

The Guardian reached out to Time magazine for feedback.