Trump charges at finish line as outsider wins Cup in Knight ‘toon

This week we experienced two major events that stop a nation. One was the US presidential election race, and the other was our Melbourne Cup here in Australia. And in both events we had two amazing results.

In the Cup, Knight’s Choice, an Australian horse, and an outsider at odds* of over 80 to 1, got up to win, defeating its more fancied European rivals. And as we all know now, Donald Trump, despite everything that he has done, galloped home to win the presidency. He not only won the presidency but also won the popular vote (meaning he got the most votes, which doesn’t always happen under the US Electoral College* voting system) and it looks like he will secure the Senate* and the House of Representatives* for the Republican Party as well. An emphatic* victory - and a surprise for many shocked supporters of Kamala Harris.

For my cartoonist’s brain, it is always a joy that every four years America votes for a president on the same day that the Melbourne Cup is held. A horse race is a great metaphor* for an election and this year we had two exciting candidates for president, Trump for the Republicans and Kamala Harris on the Democrat side, who was drafted into the presidential contest after President Joe Biden was forced to drop out, following his cognitive decline* during the campaign. So for my cartoon that would appear in the Herald Sun on Cup Day, I thought I would conflate (join) the two events into one.

Instead of the two political leaders riding horses, it would be more fun if they rode the mascots of their respective political parties. Fortunately, the Republican mascot is an elephant and the Democrat’s is a donkey. True!

I imagined Donald Trump on top of a huge bull elephant charging down the final straight, smashing through anything in its way. Kamala Harris would be pulling the whip on her donkey, and to make things more interesting, I thought I should put Joe Biden on the back as well, because Harris has had to pick up the pieces when Biden was forced to quit the campaign. I wanted the cartoon to try and harness the crazy and frenetic* energy of those last weeks of the election campaign, so maybe that is why I drew chickens and feathers flying everywhere!

When the cartoon was going to print, we did not know the result of the US election, so the scene is poised just before the finish line. The reader can have a guess at who might win. But what we did know was the winner of the Melbourne Cup, which was held as I was drawing the cartoon. I wanted to get something into the cartoon about the Cup and the result worked in my favour. As I said at the start, the winner was “Knight’s Choice” and here was a cartoon about US voters choosing a new president, in other words “America’s Choice”, so the caption was a nice play on words.

The other interesting similarity between horse racing and an election is that the public will find themselves winners or losers. Some will have sadly backed the wrong horse … and that’s the US election I’m talking about!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• odds: probability, the calculated likelihood that a particular thing will or will no happen
• Electoral College: a process, not a place, that is made up of 538 Americans chosen to represent their state and which determines the 270 votes needed to win the presidency
• Senate: upper chamber of the US Congress that votes on bills, resolutions, amendments, motions, nominations, and treaties
• House of Representatives: lower chamber of the US Congress that makes and passes federal laws
• emphatic: resounding, very strong and clear
• metaphor: describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to possess similar characteristics
• cognitive decline: reduced ability to think, learn, remember, use judgement, and make decisions
• frenetic: wild, hectic, frantic

EXTRA READING

Donald Trump wins US presidency

Five-minute guide to US election

Trump serves fries at McDonald’s

QUICK QUIZ

1. What was the winning horse at this year’s Melbourne Cup?
2. What are the animal mascots for each of the two main political parties in the US?
3. How many years will it be until the next US presidential election?
4. Who won the popular vote at the election as well as the electoral college vote?
5. Why was President Joe Biden forced to withdraw from the race?

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
Stretch your sentence
Find a “who” in the cartoon – a person or an animal. Write it down.

Add three adjectives to describe them better.

Now add a verb to your list. What are they doing?

Add an adverb about how they are doing the action.

Using all the words listed, create one descriptive sentence.