(CNN) Ten days ago, at a press conference before leaving Singapore, President Donald Trump called on Time magazine reporter Brian Bennett. "Am I on the cover again this week?" Trump asked rhetorically. "Boy, have I -- so many covers."

Trump added another Time cover this week -- although he's not likely to hang this one on the walls of any of his properties anytime soon. If you haven't seen it, here it is

The image, taken by photographer John Moore, showing a girl crying as her mother is searched has instantly become the touchstone of the family separation crisis. That scared little girl juxtaposed against the towering Trump --- looming over her in a black suit -- is a startling image.

But it's more than that. It's a telling image. It shows the compassion gap that exists between the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" border policy and the real-life people that are affected.

The best example of the administration's decided lack of compassion came Monday night in a press briefing by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Nielsen, inexplicably, said she was unfamiliar with the photos of children being detained in cages. She repeatedly insisted that all the administration was doing was enforcing the existing law when a) there is no law forcing family separation and b) the rise in family separation is directly attributable to the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy.

Read More