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This is a positive feature in a publication that Trump has long exalted – except for one issue. The magazine's cover photo, he stated, "may be the Worst of All Time".

Time magazine's paean to Trump's role in brokering a truce for Gaza, headlining its early November edition, was presented alongside a image of Trump shot from a low angle while the sun positioned behind him.

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

"Time Magazine wrote a fairly positive story about me, but the photo may be the lowest quality in history", Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a suspended coronet, but an remarkably little one. Quite bizarre! I always disliked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a terrible picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?”

Trump has made no secret of his desire to feature on Time magazine's front page and did so multiple times in the past year. The obsession has made it as far as Trump’s golf clubs – previously, the editors demanded to remove mocked up covers on display at some of his properties.

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

Its angle did no favours for the president's jawline and throat – a chance that California governor Newsom seized, with his communications team sharing an altered image with the offending area blurred.

{The living Israeli hostages detained in Gaza have been liberated under the first phase of Donald Trump's peace plan, alongside a freeing of Palestinian inmates. The deal might turn into a defining accomplishment of the president's renewed tenure, and it might signify a key shift for the region.

Simultaneously, a defence of Trump's image has emerged from an unexpected source: the spokesperson at Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs came forward to criticise the "damaging" photo selection.

It's remarkable: a photograph says more about those who picked it than about the individual pictured. Only disturbed individuals, people driven by hatred and animosity –perhaps even perverts – could have chosen such a photo", Maria Zakharova posted on the messaging platform.

Considering the favorable images of Biden that that magazine used on the cover, even with his age-related challenges, the case is self-damaging for Time", she said.

The response to Trump’s questions – what did the editors intend, 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 actual photo itself technically is good," she notes. "They selected this photo because they wanted trump to look commanding. Gazing upward creates an impression of their importance and the president's visage actually looks reflective and almost somewhat divine. It's rare you see images of the president in such a calm instance – the image has a softness to it."

The president's hair appears to “disappear” because the rear illumination has washed out that area of the image, generating a radiant circle, she explains. Even though the article's title complements Trump’s expression in the image, "it's impossible to satisfy the subject matter."

Nobody enjoys being shot from underneath, and while all of the conceptual elements of the image are quite powerful, the aesthetics are unflattering."

The publication approached the magazine for feedback.