Tag: resolutedesk

Trump After Trump #39

Trump After Trump Comic Strip 4-panel strip

Trump and Don-Don: Presidents

Everyone loves tiny things, right? Tiny houses. Tiny dancers. Tiny Tims. Shoot, NPR even has that awesome Tiny Desk concert series! Which brings us to today’s strip.

In celebrating all things tiny, I introduced Don-Don a few weeks ago. He is a little doll version of Trump, and, in spite of his essence-of-angry-sour-Trump face, Trump just loves him. The resemblance is more important to Trump than the fact that Don-Don is not a flattering likeness.

Now we have a tiny Resolute Desk, too! The famous Resolute Desk has been the desk of choice for most presidents since it was gifted to Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 by Queen Victoria. For half of this country’s history it has been a symbol of the U.S. presidency, a tradition, part of the institution of the office. So it is all the more incongruent to have Trump spend four years sitting at the Resolute Desk, iconoclast that he is.

But, as we’ve known about Trump for decades, he’s the kind of guy who loves being seen with the trappings of power and wealth. And if there is going to be a tiny Trump in his life, then he’s going to need his own tiny Resolute Desk, too.

I think the second panel of today’s comic is one of my favorites that I’ve drawn. So I’m just going to enjoy that for a minute before I figure out what to write for the next comic…

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Trump After Trump #38

Trump After Trump Comic Strip 4-panel strip

Big Boy Desk

One way to illustrate a dysfunctional White House is to have the president order the vice-president to assemble a toy for his doll.

One way to illustrate the unfortunate American (and human) love affair with authority is to have a top-ranking government official dutifully do what he’s told, regardless of how irrelevant the task is to citizens and how self-serving it is to the president.

My aspiration for this comic strip as a whole is for it to address problems with human nature, morality and government. Artists, however, can hardly evaluate how successful their art is; we need public feedback for that. And public feedback is hard to come by when your publishing outlet is the internet, where billions of pieces of content are competing for people’s attention each day, much of that content much more targeted to appeal to people than a comic strip like Trump After Trump.

These are my reflections this morning as I publish my 38th comic strip and wonder what it is doing in the world beyond me.

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Trump After Trump #37

Trump After Trump Comic Strip 4-panel strip

What More Could Pence Hope to Accomplish in Politics?

I continue to joke about the hypothetical future where American conservatives get everything they want. One of my favorite Onion pieces – it’s so hard to pick a favorite, so this is just one of many – is the headline from January 1, 2000, “Christian Right Ascends To Heaven.” The satirical news story that follows is set in my hometown of Tulsa, OK.

Fiction is great for thought experiments. It can be funny and thought-provoking to play out a fringe group’s having all of its dreams come true. In the case of this little story arc, Jesus has not come to take Pence home, but the next best thing has happened: abortion has finally been banned. What will he do now?

After he assembles Don’Don’s desk, that is.

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Trump After Trump #36

Trump After Trump Comic Strip 4-panel strip

Pence Has Been Praying About Something

Writing the headline above came naturally to me as someone who was raised in Oklahoma, going to different churches depending on the weekend, and as someone who currently lives in suburban Dallas. But, not everyone may know the colloquial meaning of “praying about” something.

To say, “Pence has been praying about something,” means that he has been wrestling with a decision in his mind, trying to find the best solution.

In Trump After Trump, Pence is how I explore religion – particularly (and obviously) American protestant Christianity – both personally and politically. Sometimes the things he says surprise me. Having this Christian character in the comic strip makes me unearth ideas, memories, turns of phrase and images from my time as a young Oklahoma Christian. I think the exploration of this part of my past and my identity is fun and beneficial, personally, and I hope that it resonates to some extent with you, too.

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