A startling photograph of Donald Trumpinfo-icon, the Egyptian president and Saudi king placing their hands on a glowing orb at a summit in Riyadh has prompted comparisons between the USinfo-icon president and villains from comic booksinfo-icon and film.

Trump, King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi were pictured standing with their hands on the miniature globe at the opening event for the new Global Centre for Combating Extremist Ideology on Sunday. The US president is in the Gulf kingdom on his first state tour.

The complex is billed as Saudi Arabiainfo-icon's headquarters for countering extremists' messaging, with more than 200 data analysts working to monitor and analyse their online activity in real time.

Local mediainfo-icon reported that the leaders' placing their hands on the globe "officially activated the centre and launched a splashy welcome video".

But, in an ironic twist, the image of the inauguration swiftly drew comparisons to Hydra, the villainous organisation bent on worldinfo-icon domination of the Marvel universe.

This is not the first time comparisons have been drawn between the Trump administration and Hydra. The Hollywoodinfo-icon Reporter reported that, since April, Hail-Hydra.com has inexplicably redirected to the president's profile page on the White House website.

The complex is billed as Saudi Arabia's headquarters for countering extremists' messaging, with more than 200 data analysts working to monitor and analyse their online activity in real time. Photo: Reuters

As #orb trended on Twitterinfo-icon there were various discussions on it being a force for good or evil.

Allison DeJong shared a selection of cards from the immensely popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering: the "Chaos orb", "Mesmeric orb" and "Zuran orb" ("Sacrifice a land: You gain 2 life").

"There are many kinds of #orb, are we sure we know which one we're dealing with here," she tweeted, to the response of "NEERRRRRRRRRD!"

It was unfair to show the orb photo cropped. Here it is with full context and it is not weirder at all.

Another Twitter user drew a parallel to a Star Trek episode first broadcast in 1968, in which Captain Kirk's body is controlled by telepathic aliens stored in metal orbs.

Even Breitbart News seemed to convey disbelief at the image,sharing it on Twitter alongside a still of George Lucas' response to criticism of his Star Wars prequel, The Phantom Menace: "I may have gone too far in a few places."

Others were more optimistic.

Saudi Arabia was the first stop on Trump's first foreign tour as US president, which will take in Israelinfo-icon, the Palestinian territories, Italyinfo-icon and Belgium.

The asrticle was first published Here