Knight’s LA riots cartoon shows Trump calm amid self-made chaos

The Trump presidency is a thrilling (if at times terrifying) ride. It is the rollercoaster that guarantees passengers will lose their lunch.

Chaos seems to be the business model for Trump policy initiatives, whether it be world trade with his tariffs* or his relationship with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which ended with Musk abruptly departing and insults being hurled!

Now it’s immigration’s* turn. The Trump administration is cracking down on illegal immigrants, particularly those with criminal records and a history of gang-related violence. No complaints about that. Then the arrests moved to those who have overstayed their visas, or don’t have the correct paperwork etc – they too were being deported*.

Protests about this area of the crackdown* soon followed, and when it all became too much for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement* teams (ICE), the National Guard* was called in.

Riots in the streets of Los Angeles were beamed around the world, highways became blocked and the sight of smashed and burning law enforcement vehicles painted a picture of chaos.

Trump also brought in the US military. But all this played into President Trump’s hands, with the images of unrest increasing Mr Trump’s standing with his voting public and making Trump look like a leader who was taking decisive action against lawlessness and unfettered* illegal immigration.

My cartoon that night was a fairly simple and straightforward observation on President Trump’s style in many areas of policy execution.

Start a fire, then get the credit for putting it out. But how could I simply illustrate this?

Well, perhaps the most noticeable physical attribute of the president is the presidential quiff. His hair. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have President Trump’s hair to draw! Looking at photographs of him as I was researching the cartoon, I saw in its wave something similar to fire.

Sometimes I will see something in a picture that triggers an idea. Maybe I could draw his hair as a huge bonfire? And so I drew his face looking relaxed at the camera and on his head, this amazing inferno, flames and embers which resembled his hairstyle.

But the president is not alarmed. In fact, he says in the cartoon, “Situation normal”. He is relaxed. That is because this is the way they do business now, whether it be trade, foreign affairs or immigration. Inflamed!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• tariffs: a set of taxes on various goods like steel and beef coming into or leaving a country
• deported: forced to leave a country
• immigration: process of people entering a country to live and work, and might also refer to the government agency that regulates border laws and that process
• National Guard: in the US, this state military force is available to serve in state and federal emergencies
• crackdown: when someone starts to deal with bad or illegal behaviour in a more severe way
• customs: the government department that deals with taxes on goods coming into and leaving a country
• enforcement: making people obey a law or rule, putting a law or rule into effect
• unfettered: not controlled, limited, or prevented by anyone

EXTRA READING

What is a ‘riot’ and why do they happen?

Mark Knight does ‘Liberation Day’

American trade tariffs explained

QUICK QUIZ

1. What does DOGE stand for?
2. Which tech billionaire recently fell out with President Trump in very public fashion?
3. Which American city has been the scene of protests and civil unrest this past week?
4. Which illegal immigrants were the initial focus of the Trump administration’s efforts?
5. How does Mark Knight think calling in the National Guard and military increased President Trump’s standing among his supporters?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What’s going on?
What’s going on in this Mark Knight cartoon? Outline the following:

Issue –

Why is it newsworthy?

What’s the humour?

Which side of the issue are they representing?

What do you see that makes you say that?

–

–

–

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
If you could turn this cartoon into a joke to tell a friend, how would you phrase it? Is it funny? Could they guess the 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”)