So much for so long had felt like sport — like a sideshow before the main event, or a rambling preamble before the big address. But now, shenanigans get real.
When Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy last summer, visual satirists all along the political spectrum got in their quick, oft-smirking hits. The Donald, after all, arrived like an old friend/target, and getting to again have reason to render that beguiling cotton-candy comb-over and Wall Streetwise, alpha-awning brow-squint and that lower lip of protruding swagger — well, it was like revisiting a favorite old haunt till autumn arrived and it was time to say goodbye.
Only that farewell never came in 2015. Because Trump has been savvier in tapping certain veins of great voter discontent than even some of his supporters gave him credit for.
For months, Trump could be the “no-holds bard,” the billionaire (he was quick to remind) developer who built things (he was quick to emphasize) who didn’t need our money to run — only our attention (which he was quick to get). And so, running not only outside the typical political machinery but also often outside the entire paradigm and playbook, Trump could insult many veterans and women and people who have disabilities and Latinos and black activists — even people who worked for him — and soldier on, his bravado and simply stated concepts buoying his poll numbers.
But now, as the year turns and the primaries near and Trump unveils his first TV ad, many of the nation’s political cartoonists will need to dig deeper when taking on the Donald. The job is about finding truth, and the surgical precision of good satire must cut.
Yet in the case of lampooning Trump, the question becomes: How do you caricature a caricature?
For many humorists so far, Trump has been comedy gold — an easy laugh, even if many of the jokes were already a bit old. But now that 2016 has arrived with the tower of a Trump candidacy still scraping the skies, it won’t be enough to simply render the Donald’s ‘do as Hitler-like hair, or twist his “Make America Great Again” slogan. Those cartoonists who are his critics — and again, they pop up on both sides of the political aisle — must carve up the meat of his messages.
Beyond drawing symbolic walls, there must be clearer windows into his vision — yet ones that also reflect how Trump has so masterfully played to his base.
Iowa is on the horizon, and New Hampshire looms, too. So all the candidates — from Bernie to Ben — deserve the studied stare of the satirist’s jaundiced eye.
Yet somehow again, Donald Trump the serious candidate deserves a longer look, because his Signature Collection is not just made on foreign soil (with no nod to the irony). His commercial attire on the campaign trail also seems to be rather magically woven with teflon, The Mint’s cotton/linen blend and — over some eyes, say critics — a few bolts of pulled wool.
Michael Cavna is the Comic Riffs columnist and reviews graphic novels for The Washington Post.
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