From Clay Jones on his political cartoon “Sleazy Cartoon,” how Donald Trump is afraid of the press, and how it forced him to cough the money up to charities
It’s my birthday. It’s the big one, too. 5-0. Fifty sleazy years. Brutal.
I start most days going through my list of subjects and I turn on the news to see if something more pressing hits. It’s usually my hope to draw a non-Trump cartoon, or at least go a couple days avoiding him. Then Trump opens his mouth and that witty Zyka idea I have is put on the back burner.
Every Republican candidate campaigns against the press. It’s red meat for their base because smart people scare them. Republicans typically hate the press because the press asks questions. There’s a liberal bias in expecting accountability. The press researches facts. There’s a liberal bias to facts. Republicans do not like accountability or dealing with facts. Brutal.
Donald Trump has taken it to a whole new level. While Republicans tend to attack the press they rarely attack a journalist personally. Trump has attacked Megyn Kelly for “not being nice.” He’s mocked a print journalist’s physical handicap. On Tuesday he told journalist Tom Llamas of ABC News that he’s a “sleaze” and Jim Acosta of CNN that he’s seen him on TV and “a real beauty” for his reporting on his campaign. He answered one question with “I think the political press is among the most dishonest people I’ve met.” Not every journalist is as willing to kiss Trump’s butt as Joe Scarborough. Trump promised to continue to treat the press with invective if he’s elected president.
The presumptive nominee hasn’t gone the Ted Cruz route yet and attacked a cartoonist, but I’m trying really hard to be the first one. Would it kill the guy to tweet a “loser” at me? Sheesh!
What brought on Trump’s latest tantrum? Having to account for charitable donations to veterans. Earlier this year Trump chickened out of a debate because he didn’t like the moderator and didn’t expect them to be nice. So he staged a campaign event instead and called it a charity event. It was to run on TV in direct competition against the GOP debate. Today he said he didn’t expect or want any attention for his charitable giving. What a humanitarian. He uses the vets for prime time coverage and to distract that he’s afraid of a female moderator (what is this guy’s deal with women?), and then gets upset over asking “show me the money.”
Trump claimed at the event that he raised $6 million. As the weeks and months went by it turns out charities weren’t receiving the money. Trump also claimed $1 million of it was coming from him. While he’s upset that anyone would ask him about this, he didn’t write that check until last week. In fact, most of the charities didn’t receive anything until last week.
The press started hounding Trump about this and he finally coughed up the money, because the press hounded him. He claims that a lot of the donations were pledges at the time and he had to chase them down, which does make sense. Maybe he should have said that weeks ago. He also claimed that he vetted each of the charities himself and it later turned out that they didn’t even bother to look at their tax information, or how much the charities spent on fundraising. Eventually $5.6 million was raised and distributed to over 40 charities.
Trump is a thin-skinned baby. He should market Trump Diapers. He doesn’t like being challenged. He called the judge hearing the case against Trump University a “Mexican.” and a “hater.” When asked why he referred to him that way Trump answered that it’s because he has integrity. That didn’t answer the question. By the way, the judge is from Indiana.
Trump says the media shouldn’t be criticizing him. They shouldn’t expect him to be accountable. They should thank him. He also wants a statue built in his image and placed in Washington, D.C.
If they ever do make a Trump statue, I totally volunteer to design the image for it. I’ll start with the lips because I’m sleazy like that.
Brutal.
claytoonz.com/2016/05/31/sleazy-cartoon
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