Cartoonist Mark Knight brings light relief to Trump’s ‘Liberation’

You’ve got to give it to Donald Trump – he is never dull. In fact, he loves chaos. His strategy during his second term in office has been to “flood the zone”.

The term refers to the release of so many wild, even crazy policies and thought bubbles over a short period of time that the media and his political opponents are smothered by the wave of announcements. There is no clean air for a reply or debate. Just look at some of his ideas.

Making Canada the 51st state of America; Gaza the Riviera of the Middle East; taking over Greenland; cutting military aid to Ukraine; making Elon Musk the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and expelling illegal immigrants by the plane load.

But his most audacious* policy was to make America’s economy great again by imposing trade tariffs on countries that export* products to America and, in President Trump’s eyes, threaten and destroy manufacturing in America.

A trade tariff is a charge put on imported* products or goods to make them more expensive. It is supposed to make local products that don’t have tariffs on them cheaper in price, and therefore make them more attractive to consumers.

This week President Trump launched what he called “Liberation Day”, which was a range of trade tariffs on every nation in the world to help rebuild American manufacturing. The tariffs went from a standard 10 per cent on all goods, up to 45 per cent on China, which exports everything from electric cars to TVs into America.

If these countries wanted to avoid the tariffs, all they had to do, said Mr Trump, was build factories in America, hire American workers and make their products there. It would make American industry great again.

But the downside was that this move will probably start a trade war. Countries will impose their own tariffs on America, a trade world war will begin, which will cause prices to rise, inflation* will return, stock markets will go into free-fall, interest rates will skyrocket faster than an Elon Musk Space X Falcon 9 heavy lift launch vehicle, and economic recession* ensues.

I did tell you Mr Trump was never dull!

So a cartoon on Liberation Day was a must. The challenge was to illustrate how America was shutting its door to foreign imports by using trade tariffs under President Trump. I thought the cartoon should feature one of the greatest symbols of the USA: the Statue of Liberty. Engraved at the base of the colossal* green copper sculpture that stands in the Hudson River are the words:

“Give me your tired, your poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free … Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost* to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door*.”

Lady Liberty stood there in the port of New York to welcome the immigrant ships to the land of hope and opportunity. Just as she also welcomed the trade ships and container vessels that brought products and goods from all over the planet to the world’s largest economy.

In my cartoon, though, it would instead be Mr Trump as Liberty, standing in the Hudson River as the statue of Liberation Day.

He was not holding a flaming torch, that beacon that welcomed people to America and overseas trade. No, like a giant lollipop lady at a suburban school crossing, he is holding a large sign that says “STOP” to free trade. In the river below we can see sunken container ships that have been swamped by the trade tariffs imposed by the president to “protect” American industry. It is a scene of total trade chaos.

And yes, I did tell you: he loves chaos.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• audacious: showing a willingness to take risks or offend people
• export: sending goods from your country to another country for sale
• import: bringing in goods from other countries to sell in your country
• inflation: an increase in the prices of goods and services that households buy
• recession: a significant decline in economic activity that lasts for months
• colossal: gigantic, massive, huge
• tempest-tost: thrown about by stormy seas, a reference to the notoriously difficult Atlantic crossing from Europe
• I lift my lamp beside the golden door: lighting the way to the land of opportunity and prosperity

EXTRA READING

What is Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’?

American trade tariffs explained

Can Trump really dump education?

QUICK QUIZ

1. What name did President Trump give to his tariff announcement?
2. What does it mean to “flood the zone”?
3. For whom was the Statue of Liberty a symbolic welcome to America?
4. In the words inscribed at the base of the statue, what does Lady Liberty lift and what is it beside?
5. Mark Knight reminds us that President Trump loves what state or condition?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Values, identities and actions
Study today’s Mark Knight cartoon and answer the following questions about the work:

What values does this cartoon invite us to think about?

Who is this cartoon speaking about? And who is this work trying to speak to?

What actions might the viewpoint in the cartoon encourage?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
How can cartoonists like Mark Knight encourage or change people’s opinions on a controversial subject or topic?

Do you think his work needs approval before going to print? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, 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”)