April 12th, 2020

What can be considered a staple to any newspaper would be political cartoons. Political cartoons are cartoons that make light of political news, topics, and events that are going on at that time. To give a better idea of what political cartoons are all about, political cartoons can be thought of public relations. The Princeton review refers to public relations as a job to “generate positive publicity for their client and enhance their reputation … They keep the public informed about the activity of government agencies, explain policy, and manage political campaigns.” (Forbes article). This is essentially the same purpose and goal of a political cartoon however, a difference between the two is that through the creation of a political cartoon, they can be created to generate negative publicity and degrade the reputation of a political figure.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

​This political cartoon was chosen because of how relevant the cartoon is with the current events happening in the United States. This political cartoon has is based around the topic of coronavirus. The cartoonist’s opinion on the subject is obviously that the cartoonist does not believe that Trump is not handling the coronavirus pandemic well. In the cartoon, President Donald Trump is humorously drawn in the way a caricature would be drawn. As one can see in the cartoon, President Trump is saying in the cartoon that he has everything under control with an asterisk at the end of that statement. However, the asterisk is drawn to be a germ particle to represent the coronavirus. At the bottom of the cartoon is a sort of flip note to show what the asterisk means, and it simply says “LOL!”. The asterisk in the cartoon in a sense to laugh at the idea that President Trump has the ability to keep everything under control during the coronavirus pandemic. Ever since the pandemic has started, President Trump has been heavily criticized for the way he has handled the pandemic. A USA Today article displayed the results of poll on how they think Trump has handled the pandemic. According to the poll that was released this past Wednesday, 52% of Americans are disapproving of the job that Trump is doing as compared to the 48% that was tallied from early March (USA Today article). This cartoon is relying on the emotional appeal and ethical appeal because it is easily to speak ill of President Trump because of the kind of person he is but also, President Trump can probably do a better job handling this pandemic because early on he did refer to coronavirus as just another flu. What also sticks out in this political cartoon is the facial expressions of the medical experts standing behind Trump. All of them are showing no emotion alluding to the fact that they scared and that things are not under control contrary to President Trump’s belief that everything is under control.

Source: Florida Courier

​Here is another political cartoon in relation to President Trump. Drawn is what can be considered a rally for supporting Trump as Trump in the political cartoon is saying he draws the largest crowds. The humor can be found in the background of the cartoon to see the people in the crowd. The people are holding up signs that would be considered “anti-trump”. The signs say things such as “Death to America” and a sign with his last name with a red line going through it. What completes this cartoon is Trump’s facial expression which is smiling as he says that he draws the biggest crowds. Yes, he has drawn a big crowd but it’s a crowd that does not like him alluding to the fact that Trump is unaware that large groups of people do not like him at all. This political cartoon came out on January 9th 2020. The cartoonist clearly does not have a high opinion of Trump. In my own opinion, this kind of cartoon would be fitting for at any time of Trump’s tenure as president because from the start, people who did not vote for him and even for people who did vote for him do not like him. The coloring of this cartoon is quite telling. With Trump being the only one colored and the rest of the people in the crowd being in back and white, one can conclude that in the cartoon, Trump is the only one who thinks highly of himself while everyone is not colored all have the same opinion and dismay towards Trump. The emotional peal is very apparent in this cartoon with the signs saying things like death to America and “Trump” with a line through it is just raw emotion. There’s no logistical reasoning behind the hatred.

​The purpose of political cartoons is to humorously bring to light issues happening in the political world. These issues can be more serious than others. Political cartoons serve as a different way of looking at politics. Again, political cartoons tend to be rather humorous. They serve as a more light and funny way of looking at the political world rather than the seemingly always negative points of view of politics.

References 
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/08/coronavirus-polling-shows-majorities-disapproving-trumps-handling/2967994001/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2016/01/21/five-things-everyone-should-know-about-public-relations/#45ba15bc2a2c
- http://flcourier.com/trump-gets-the-biggest-crowds/
- ​https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/bagley/2020/03/19/bagley-cartoon-trump/