He is the person everyone is talking about - for good or bad reasons - but Donald Trump is about to get the Time treatment.

The Republican nominee for US president is featured on the publication's new August 22nd cover with the simple headline: 'Meltdown.'

Alongside that is a melting face, presumably of Trump, with blond hair and an orange face.

While inside, the magazine pulls no punches: "Since his convention in Cleveland, Trump has done almost nothing right by traditional standards."

"He has picked fights with senior Republicans and Gold Star parents, invited Russian spies to meddle in U.S. democracy, appeared to joke about gun enthusiasts’ prematurely removing a U.S. President from office."

Illustration by Edel Rodriguez for Time  | Image: Time magazine

"He’s shuffled campaign messages like playing cards and left GOP elders fretting that he lacks the judgment to be Commander in Chief," it adds.

The authors of the piece - Alex Altman, Philip Elliott and Zeke J Miller - say the businessman now faces a reckoning.

"There are daunting demographics to surmount. Allies complain of massive staff shortages in battleground states. And voters are skeptical of a billionaire reality star who seems to study the rules of campaigning only so he can break them."

But the publication also suggests Trump still has reasons to be confident.

"For starters, roughly two-thirds of poll respondents don't believe his opponent is honest or trustworthy. There’s no predicting what outside forces could intrude: another batch of leaked emails, a terrorist attack, a blow to the economy."