Stunning Time Magazine cover blends faces of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump

Time magazine's latest cover features what some have called an "eerie" blend of the faces of Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin - reflecting the affinity between the two leaders.

The US president's whispy blonde comb-over and distinctive pursed lips and raised eyebrows are melded with Mr Putin's steely blue eyes and cool expression.

Nancy Burson is the visual artist behind the cover and it "is meant to represent this particular moment in US foreign policy, following the pair's recent meeting," the magazine said.

"A year and a half into his presidency, Trump’s puzzling affinity for Putin has yet to be explained," Time said in its cover story. "To represent that conflict, [Ms] Burson merged the faces of Trump and Putin into a still image and video which morphs between the shifting appearances of the two world leaders."

After the trip, whre Mr trump sought to play up the potential for cooperation between the two nations, and amid the growing chorus of those calling him "treasonous," "shameful," and "weak" for not denouncing Mr Putin for Russian for meddling in the 2016 US election, Mr Trump attempted to clarify his remarks.

Ahead of a Cabinet meeting, the president claimed he "misspoke" about Russian interference.

“I thought it would be obvious but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t: In a key sentence ... I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’,” Mr Trump said ahead of a meeting with his cabinet and Congressional Republicans. He clarified: “The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why... it wouldn’t be Russia’”. He said it was an issue with the transcript and he used “sort of a double negative”.

One of the more scathing indictments of the president's relationship with Mr Putin came from senior Republican Senator John McCain, who said the Helsinki summit was a “a recent low point” in the history of the presidency and a “tragic mistake”.

It is not the first instance where Time has used the cover to judge Mr Trump's time in office. In January, to mark a year of the Trump presidency, it featured a drawing of the Commander-in-Chief with his hair on fire.

Last month, the Trump administration's controversial policy of separating parents and children on the US border was marked using a picture of Mr Trump treating the issue with apparent indifference.

The cover showed Mr Trump looming over a crying toddler with the words “Welcome to America” as the headline.

The two-year-old Honduran girl appearing on the cover was photographed by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Moore at the US-Mexico border.