Trumpoply

I normally try to avoid doing two cartoons in a row on roughly the same topic, but while my last piece addressed the numerous criminal charges currently being litigated against Donald Trump, it only briefly mentioned the two civil trials he’s already lost. Each of these resulted in massive fines: $83 million for falsely alleging defamation by author E. Jean Carroll when she said Trump raped her, and around half a billion dollars for fraud relating to the value of his assets, which he, his children, and his cronies have for years over- or under-reported at any given time depending on whether their goal was to either obtain loans or evade taxes.

To avoid immediately paying the fine or having his property seized, the court initially tasked Trump with securing a bond for the full $450 million or so pending the outcome of appeal—an impossible task, since no one in their right mind would ever want to cover such a huge bond even on behalf of a relatively honest person, let alone an inveterate liar notorious for skipping out on bills. Furthermore, Trump likely does not have that amount of cash on hand anyway, no matter how much he doubles down on the very behavior that caused this trouble in the first place by continuing to exaggerate his wealth.

If you or I were to attempt anything remotely similar, we’d be instantly dragged to prison, but Trump’s not only been allowed to continue Passing Go, free to lumber around the country like a wet, demented gorilla while violating gag orders with impunity, he’s also had his bond responsibility reduced by nearly 2/3—and it’s starting to look like he won’t even be able to secure that! I wonder what ridiculous, undeserved life-raft the courts will toss him next, huh?

The combination of property crime + prison called to my mind the iconic “jail” space from the board game Monopoly, and while it’s shallower than my gags typically are, I figured I could execute it faster than a few other, much more complicated concepts under concurrent development. I also thought it might have broader appeal to the Democratic grifter sphere on social media and their audience, who, much like their conservative and Alt-Right counterparts, prefer… let’s say, “unchallenging presentations and memes without a great deal of complexity or nuance.” I have no qualms about exploiting them for potential virality as long as I’m at least doing it with a well-drafted illustration, as opposed to poorly-drawn stick figures emblazoned with vapid, #ImWithHer-type slogans, sold at $50-$100 a pop, for example. My message to that audience is that I still have more respect for them than the grifters do, and I’d rather earn their attention with clever ideas, artistic skill, and genuine effort than merely enthrall them with the same empty magic words they already know they like to hear.