Trump on the Drawing Board

"William Howard Taft" by Oliver Herford in Confessions of a Caricaturist, Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1917

Matt Wuerker had a wonderful post at Politico the other day in which eight of the top U.S. editorial cartoonists share their thought processes about drawing Donald Joffrey Trump. Included are videos in which you can listen to Pat Bagley, Barry Blitt, David Horsey, Kevin Kallaugher, Mike Lester, Ann Telnaes, Signe Wilkinson and Matt himself describe their approach to the subject while their drawings come into being before your very eyes.

All eight offer variations on the opinion that D.J. Trump is the easiest president to draw in the history of the Republic, which I'd like to take issue with.

We cartoonists end up thinking every president is the easiest thing to draw.

When Gerald Ford became president after less than a year as veep, the conventional wisdom was that he was a disaster for cartoonists, a bland face devoid of caricaturable features. "Cartoonists' first attempts at capturing the quintessential Ford," Newsweek wrote in its August 26, 1974 edition, "have been bland enough to raise the risk of mistaken identity."

Cartoons by Tom Darcy (Newsday), Don Wright (Miami News), John Fischetti (Chicago Daily News) and Hugh Haynie (Louisville Courier-Journal) reprinted in Newsweek, August 26, 1974

"Jerry Ford's face," sighs Miami News editorial cartoonist Don Wright, "has a striking similarity to the backside of my thumb." Few of Wright's colleagues would go quite that far, but it seems clear that not having Richard Nixon to caricature any more has sent the U.S. cartoonist corps into a technical tizzy. "Nixon's face was covered with things that said what you wanted them to say," observes Pat Oliphant of The Denver Post. "But Ford is the most challenging political figure I've had to draw."

But by 1975, even high school newspaper novices such as myself could draw him in our sleep.

With Trump, the challenge is that he presents a visual overload: the meticulously overworked comb-over, the jowls, the squinty pale eyes, the elastic mouth from his Mussolini pout to his Joker rictus.

But I'm tired of the overly long tie. Whenever possible, I like to draw him not in a suit and tie, but golfing (which allows me to include two other overloaded features: his paunch and rump), or keeping Melania awake with his pre-dawn Twitter addiction. He is not presidential, and I'd rather not draw him looking presidential.

From my sketchbook

Sadly for us cartoonists, that orange skin tone is fading away; I guess he hasn't moved his tanning bed into the White House. It will live on in our cartoons until he becomes as pasty-white as the bags under his eyes and we can't ignore it any more.

And someday — a day which can't come soon enough — we cartoonists will have to move on to some other Easiest Thing To Draw. Unlike with Gerry Ford, we've had plenty of time to hone our visions of Mike Pence; and even if the Democrats put up someone we've never heard of before, we've been through that with Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

We'll do just fine.

Q Toon: Tow Be Or Not Tow Be

A presidential election is not the only thing you can look forward to in 2016. ("Look forward"? It's been underway for over a year already. Perhaps "Look around." But I digress.)

On many Republican-ruled state agendas are "religious liberty" proposals to create gaping loopholes in civil rights laws. Loopholes you could drive a tow truck through.

The stated aim of "religious liberty" laws is to excuse anyone who cites religion from having to respect the civil rights of someone else — by which they mean LGBT folks. Religious institutions already have that exemption. Don't expect the pastor at a WELS church to marry Giuseppe and Miryam, or to rent them Luther Hall for the reception.

"Religious liberty" legislation opens up the loophole to everybody else. While a gay couple in Atlanta can probably find someone to bake them a wedding cake that is just as good or better than the baker whose religious sensibilities might be offended by the prospect, that might not be true for a gay couple in McCaysville.

"Religious liberty" can be cited as an excuse for damn near anything, not just wedding cakes and reception halls — see Pat Bagley's cartoon today. Republicans write these proposed laws so broadly that anyone could cite "religious liberty" as their grounds for discriminating in housing, employment, health care, education — things the religious libertine no doubt takes for granted for him or herself.

Q Toon: A-Gonna Trouble the Water

New Mormon Church (that of Latter Day Saints, if you prefer) policies denying the rite of baptism to the children of same-sex parents were leaked to Facebook last week by LDS ex-communicant blogger John Dehlin.

Under the new church policy, people in "same-gender" marriage have been added to the list of those acts that are considered apostasy and would be subject to disciplinary action. ...
As for children, a separate section of the handbook says that natural or adopted kids of same-sex parents, whether married or just living together, may not receive a naming blessing.
The policy also bars children from being baptized, confirmed, ordained to the church's all-male priesthood or recommended for missionary service without the permission of the faith's highest leaders — the governing First Presidency.

Baptism under the new policy is withheld until the child is an adult, "specifically disavows the practice of same-gender cohabitation and marriage, ... and does not live with a parent who has lived or currently lives in a same-gender cohabitation relationship or marriage."

Way to support families, LDS hierarchy!

The LDS later clarified the policy, explaining that children of gay and lesbian parents can still receive "blessings." So there's no need for an awkward silence after the kid sneezes.
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In other Utahn news, their Governor, Gary Herbert, stands apart from his fellow Republican governors (plus Jeanne Shaheen D-NH) in his refusal to bar Syrian refugees from his state. I rarely have a chance to say nice things about any Republican any more; yet I don't think there is anything I could say or draw better than the Salt Lake Tribune's excellent cartoonist Pat Bagley has.

Do check out his cartoon; it's a refreshing change from the torrent of Mayflower and No-Room-At-The-Inn clichés so many cartoonists (and meme raths outgrabing the internet) have produced this week.