Cartoons are skewering Trump’s golfing against the backdrop of Covid-19 deaths
OVER the Memorial Day weekend, dozens of cartoonists decided to share variations of the same mash-up idea: Depict President Trump hitting the golf course while the death toll from covid-19 neared 100,000 Americans.
On Saturday, the Twitter account @JustVent6 took a twoweek-old cartoon by Canadian artist Michael de Adder - in which Trump tees off atop a rug, under which bodies have been swept - and superimposed it onto a New York Times front page.
The page, published in print Sunday, spotlights Covid-19 victims beneath the headline: “US deaths near 100,000, an incalculable loss.”
“Historically I’m not OK with my work being used in a mashup, and most cartoonists are not okay with it, either,” de Adder told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
But, he says, “There was no denying it worked as an image, probably even better than the original cartoon. And further it was clear that it was already popular on Twitter before I even noticed.”
The mash-up has received more than 2,400 likes.
Because many people “seemed to love” the concept and “know that I’m the artist behind the image,” de Adder says he decided to allow the co-opting of his cartoon.
Meanwhile, just hours later, the American cartoonist Steve Brodner coincidentally issued a challenge on Twitter, writing: “Mass art protest idea: Everyone getting Times tomorrow, draw [Trump] playing golf on top and post. On paper, or digitally.”
“It was an idea I wanted to do myself but thought that it was so straight-ahead that everybody should take a swing at it,” Brodner tells The Post.
Among the first wave of cartoonists to answer Brodner’s call were recent Pulitzer Prize finalist Rob Rogers and Virginiabased freelance artist Clay Jones.
Rogers — who was fired by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2018 largely for his cartoons criticizing the president and his policies — says the concept of combining Trump’s golfing and the Times cover was brewing in his mind when he saw Brodner’s tweet. “I had to answer,” says Rogers, adding: “We had to make a statement.”
“The real strength in this comes from the number of the great cartoonists participating,” Jones says.
“We combined all our voices into one loud roar, and I hope the people who need to hear it most heard it.”