A political cartoon is usually a graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist’s opinion.

Annotations:

• The character represents the current president of the United States, Donald Trump
• Holding an American flag
• The trade war is labeled on an I-beam used in architecture
• “Take that, Canada, Mexico, and Europe” – quote from the character
• The exaggerated body shape of “Donald Trump”, stereotype
• USA hat – identity

Commentary:

Well, in this political cartoon, the character can be inferred as Donald Trump, the current US president. Based on the hat that says “USA”, the US national flag and his stereotypical body shape.

In the picture, we can see a steel I-beam which Trump has been taxed heavily going through his own body. With him saying: “Take that, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.”

It is then not difficult to get the artist’s true intentions and objectives. We can see that after Trump taxes the countries in this political cartoon, domestic businesses and the economy have seen a decline in their productivity and revenue. It’s because Trump has taxed steel coming from other countries and there are few substitutes for those firms producing steel-related goods.

The point that the artist is criticizing is that Trump is hurting the United States’ domestic economy in spite of his thoughts that taxing other country’s steel imports can be beneficial. Thus, it is the reason why the steel beam, went through the character in the cartoon, it means that he is hurting himself instead of making an improvement.

Political cartoons can sometimes be fun to look at, as we can often learn about the current world and political issues. As well as learn to interpret these kinds of “artworks”.