Democrats’ midterms win leaves Trump a lame duck in Knight toon
The most powerful man in the world now sports an inflatable rubber ducky ring to stay afloat in cartoonist Mark Knight’s view of the Democrats’ historic midterm flip in both houses of Congress
READING LEVEL: ORANGE
American president Donald Trump is a cartoonist’s delight. I could draw a cartoon on him every day and still not cover all the material he offers up.
Whether it’s his war in Iran, a curious affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the tariff* wars with Canada and other trading partners, threatening NATO alliances*, the arrests of so-called illegal immigrants by his aggressive ICE* squads in the US, his hair, the fake tan or even Nicki Minaj’s butt, President Trump is a cornucopia* of ideas for we lucky cartoonists and the late night show hosts on US television!
He is different.
And so is the political system in the United States, which differs from ours here in Australia. America’s federal government consists of three branches: the legislative* branch, which is the Congress. It’s made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Then there’s the executive branch, which is the president, the vice president and the cabinet ministries.
The third arm of the US government is the judicial* branch, which is the Supreme Court.
The president is elected every four years (and can only serve two terms), the House of Representatives every two years and senators are elected every six years.
Last week, the midterm elections were held in Congress, midway through the four-year term of President Trump. As with the Liberal and Labor Parties here in Australia, in the US there are two main political parties: the Republicans (red) and the Democrats (blue). The Republican Party had control of both houses, which suited the Republican President Trump very nicely. It meant that he had the power over the presidential wing of government and also the legislature in the Congress.
Mr Trump wanted to hold onto that power and while campaigning these last few months, he encouraged Americans to get out and vote for the Republicans.
Unfortunately for the president, things haven’t been going all his way during this second term in office and he is not as popular with the American public as he thought. His approval ratings in opinion polls have plummeted.
Trump has to be one of the most unconventional presidents we’ve ever seen and that was his great appeal to voters and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
He was not seen as a politician but more of an anti-politician, someone who would up-end the political elites*, drain the Washington swamp, stop the foreign “forever wars”, revitalise American industry and jobs, and reduce government intervention in people’s lives.
It hasn’t worked out that way, unfortunately.
His war with Iran was supposed to be a quick surgical take-down of the Islamic regime*, but the Iranians did not yield to American military might. Despite the bombing of Iran and the killing of their supreme leader Ayatollah* Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) is still in power.
Even though this war is thousands of miles from the US, it hit home there when the Iranians blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway that sees 25 per cent of the Middle Eastern oil exports pass through.
That disruption of supply caused oil prices to rise sharply around the world, including in Australia, and suddenly Americans were paying a lot more to fill up their Ford Bronco and Dodge Ram pick-ups.
When the time came for the midterm elections, the American public was not in a good mood, nor happy with President Trump’s leadership. Despite Trump not being up for re-election himself, the Congressional vote was seen as a referendum* on the president. It did not go well for him, nor the Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Democrats won a majority in both houses.
In US politics, the Republican Party is the red party and the Democrats are blue. The political pundits* were describing the result as like a “blue tsunami*” sweeping through Washington and wiping out the Republican control of Capitol Hill.
The blue wave was also bad news for the President, who will find life a lot tougher now that he has to deal with a non-compliant Congress. The term “lame duck*” is being used to describe the last two years of Trump’s presidency due to the Republicans losing power.
My pen was raring to go!
I love those disaster movies where giant tidal waves hit New York and I felt I had to draw such a scene with the Democrats’ blue wave hitting the neoclassical* dome of the Capitol Hill Congress building in Washington.
Even though drawing that amazing building is very detailed in execution, the wave itself took many drafts to get right and the details of the wave hitting the structure were a challenge. In itself, the cartoon is a simple image, yet it powerfully illustrates the political event which has just occurred. I also wanted to include the president and the effect this change in the power balance will have on him.
Will he sink or will he swim?
The talk of a lame duck presidency inspired me to put Mr Trump in an inflatable yellow duck water ring. He stands before the political cataclysm*, slightly dwarfed by events.
But if there is one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that we can never write him off. Stay tuned!
POLL
GLOSSARY
- tariff: a tax on goods entering a country from another place, which are called imports
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, an international political and military defence alliance established in 1949 after World War II
- alliance: a group of countries, political parties, or people who work together because of shared interests or aims, or the act of forming such a group
- ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency enforcing border control, customs, trade and immigration inside the US
- cornucopia: originating in Greek mythology and the “horn of plenty”, figuratively it now refers to an abundance of something, a never ending bounty
- legislative: relating to government legislation, being the laws governing a society
- judicial: relating to a judge or judges, to a law court, or to the justice system
- regime: a particular government or a system or method of government, sometimes used to refer to governing bodies and leaders who were not elected freely or fairly by their citizens
- ayatollah: a high-ranking, important religious leader of Shiite Muslims
- referendum: a vote in which all the people in a country or an area are asked to give their opinion about or decide an important political or social question
- neoclassical: a relatively modern building made in a style that is based on the art and building designs of ancient Greece and Rome
- pundits: those who know a lot about a particular subject and discuss their opinions publicly
- tsunami: a gigantic wave triggered by a seismic event
- lame duck president: a president with reduced powers who is on their way out of office
- cataclysm: an event that causes a lot of damage, or a sudden, extreme change
EXTRA READING
US Congress just flipped to blue
Reality check during elections
How war fuels federal budget fires
QUICK QUIZ
- Which are the two main parties in American politics and by which colours are they known?
- What is the crucial waterway through which a quarter of Middle Eastern oil supply must pass?
- What does “MAGA” stand for?
- Who was the supreme leader fatally wounded early in the US and Israel’s war on Iran?
- What are the three branches of the federal government in the US?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Humour analysis
After reading and analysing the Mark Knight cartoon in the Kids News explainer, complete the following analysis questions to help you get the full humour out of his drawing.
Mark Knight cartoon analysis:
What is the main issue Mark Knight is highlighting:
Who is portrayed in the cartoon?
How are they portrayed?
What is the humour in the drawing?
Who might agree with his viewpoint?
Who might disagree or possibly be offended by this viewpoint?
Do you think he makes a good point? Explain your answer.
Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
Write a response to this cartoon from the viewpoint of one of the people or objects portrayed in the cartoon. Think, what would be their response to the speech bubble and satire from the cartoon.
Write or draw your response below.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.
Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.
(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)