Walt Disney famously described laughter as America’s most important export – it seems now more than ever, US politics is served with a generous helping of humour.
Having gained prominence in the 19th century, with the emergence of mass press and graphic reproduction, political cartoons are a powerful form of expression.
Overcoming language barriers and appealing to even the illiterate, satirical cartoons provide an entertaining and effective means to carve political conversation into the walls of history.
Both throughout the campaign and since inauguration, Trump’s heavy tan, thick blonde hair and chubby fingers continue to make for superb caricatures in a lively political era.
Trump’s infamous hair-do made for a witty, air-force pun.
As the world awoke to his first day in office, David Rowe wasn’t the only artist to depict a scene reminiscent of many university digs during fresher’s season.
Americans woke up bleary eyed, ready to face the consequences of their historic vote.
As Trump’s executive orders began flooding in, Barry Blitt depicted the panic behind the headlines flooding worldwide news publications.
In response to Trump’s order to ‘build The Wall’, Eoin Kelleher illustrated a scene reminiscent of America’s top security prisons.
While Prime Minister Theresa May boarded a flight across the Atlantic to meet with her new ally, criticisms of her and other leaders’ apathy towards Trump’s controversial policies grew.
Pat Chapatte published a more sinister cartoon of Trump striding over the ‘spineless leaders of democracy’.
Shortly after the Prime Minister’s visit, the press had a field day over the President’s immigration ban.
The plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty reads: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
‘Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’
In the aftermath of the travel ban, these words are fueling many political cartoons.
Gunduz Aghayev sketched an image of the President replacing the statue and seizing control of principles underpinning American democracy.
Whether you love him or hate him, Trump is certainly giving the press something to draw about.
In the words of author Kurt Vonnegut: ‘Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.’