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It is a glowing story in a magazine that Donald Trump has frequently admired – with one exception. The front-page image, the president decreed, ""might be the most terrible in history".

Time's paean to the president's involvement in brokering a Gaza ceasefire, featured on its November 10 cover, was presented alongside a photo of Trump shot from a low angle while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"The publication wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", the president posted on his preferred network.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that resembled a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Quite bizarre! I never liked taking pictures from below viewpoints, but this is a terrible picture, and should be criticized. What is their intention, and why?”

Trump has made obvious his ambition to feature on Time’s cover and did so on four occasions in the previous year. This fixation has extended to the president's resorts – years ago, the publication requested to remove fabricated front pages on display at several of his venues.

The latest edition’s photo was captured by Graeme Sloane for Bloomberg at the White House on October 5.

The perspective did no favours for his chin and neck area – an opening that the governor of California Newsom took advantage of, with the governor's office sharing an altered image with the offending area obscured.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of the president's diplomatic initiative, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. This agreement could be a major success of the president's renewed tenure, and it could mark a pivotal moment for the Middle East.

At the same time, a defense of Trump's image has been offered by a surprising origin: the director of information at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs stepped in to criticise the "damaging" picture decision.

It's amazing: a photo exposes those who selected it than about the subject. Only disturbed individuals, people obsessed with malice and hatred –maybe even degenerates – could have selected such an image", she shared on Telegram.

Considering the favorable images of President Biden that the periodical featured on the front, even with his age-related challenges, 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? – might involve innovatively depicting a feeling of authority stated by a picture editor, a media professional.

"The actual photo itself technically is good," she explains. "They picked this image because they wanted Trump to look impressive. Staring up at someone creates an impression of their majesty and the president's visage actually looks thoughtful and almost somewhat divine. It’s not often you see photos of Trump in such a serene moment – the picture feels tender."

The president's hair seems to vanish because the sunlight behind him has overexposed that part of the image, generating a radiant circle, she says. And, while the feature's heading pairs nicely with Trump’s expression in the image, "one cannot constantly gratify the person photographed."

Few people appreciate being shot from underneath, and even if all of the thematic components of the image are highly effective, the visual appeal are unflattering."

The news outlet reached out to the magazine for comment.