Mike Luckovich - A Very Stable Genius

MIKE LUCKOVICH

People come up to me all the time and say, Boy, with Trump in office, youve got lots of material. To this, I always reply, Yeah, but its like being married to a nymphomaniac: fun at first, but it quickly becomes a nightmare. Many friends tell me theyve stopped paying attention to the news to distance themselves from Trumps daily deluge of nonsense. As much as I might want to, I cant do that. Its my job to follow everything he says and does. Its actually harder coming up with cartoons now. When Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or even George W. Bush were in office and said or did something I disagreed with, my cartoons would exaggerate their statement or action, making it more absurd in order to mock it. With Trump, his absurdity level is already so off the charts, its hard to top it in a cartoon.

Heres an example of a typical day dealing with Trump. I arrive at work a little before noon and hes usually already tweeted something irrational like, Cheetos mock me! Lock them up! So, I ask myself: Do I draw a bag of Cheetos working in a chain gang? Naw. I decide to wait a little while until he says or does something even crazier. I know that as Trump emits more verbal baloney throughout the day, his earlier tweet threatening incarceration of Cheetos will be forgotten. Then later, Im in my office and receive a breaking news alert: At the White House luncheon, Trump literally poops in the punch bowl! Its still early, and Im thrilled Ive already gotten todays cartoon topic. I start to draw what will assuredly win me a Pulitzer Prize, sketching a large United Statesshaped punch bowl, and floating in the middle, labeled Trump, is a big orange... and then theres another breaking news alert: Trump gives the Pope a glass of punch! Bummer, I think, now I have to switch focus to papal hydration.

The three networks plus MSNBC and CNN feature nonstop Defecategate coverage. On CNN, Jake Tappers interviewing presidential historian Michael Beschloss asking, So, Michael, did Abe Lincoln ever poop in a punch bowl?

Unsurprisingly, Fox News isnt even mentioning it. Complete silence. Instead, Sean Hannitys railing about Bill and Hillary Clinton being in a love triangle with a Nazi dwarf.

The next day, as readers open their papers or check their devices, they see most of Americas cartoonists have drawn a bald eagle with a tear in its eye as it watches the Pope consume punch, except for the few conservative cartoonists whove drawn bald eagles with tears in their eyes perched on bedposts, watching Bill and Hillary cavorting in the sheets with a torch-carrying, Sieg Heilshouting dwarf.

After former beauty queen Alicia Machado, an avid Hillary supporter, threatened to write about Trumps bad behavior, he mocked her weight gain and her Hispanic heritage, calling her Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping. I drew this after Hillary mopped the floor with him during the debates.

I drew this after Trump lost the Iowa Caucus vote to Ted Cruz by a large margin.