CBS reviewed internal government documents:"Three weeks ago, 238 Venezuelan migrants were flown from Texas to a maximum security prison in El Salvador… We could not find criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans – 179 men- now sitting in prison." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-re…
After Trump and Trumpism are consigned to the dust bin of history, we will need to spend a long time earning back the trust and friendship of our allies.
Trump wins another golf tournament while the world burns Read on Substack
Donald Trump spent the weekend in his “billionaire bubble,” as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer likes to say (he’s not always ridiculous), avoiding the stock market crash he created with his stupid tariffs, a ceremony honoring four soldiers who died in a training accident in Lithuania (which Trump couldn’t find on a map), and hundreds of thousands of Americans in every state protesting his administration.
Sometimes you want to get away, but Trump didn’t take Southwest. He took Air Force One (sic) to South Florida to play golf…again. So far, taxpayers have spent $26 million for Trump to play golf since his inauguration (sic). He’s on track to surpass the $151.5 million we paid for him to play golf during his first term (sic).
Naturally, Trump played on a course he owns so he can collect the money the government spends for him to play golf there. He also made an appearance at a LIV tournament hosted at one of his resorts, which was paid for by Saudi Arabia. Remember when Republicans accused Biden of collecting money from foreign governments without any proof? How many howled this weekend about Trump doing business with the Saudis? Too many to count, right? That was sarcasm.
Trump also played in a tournament, which he said he won. The White House announced with “BREAKING,” that he won the Senior Club Championship at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter.
When asked by a reporter how the tournament went, Trump said, “Very good because I won. It’s good to win. You heard I won, right? Did you hear I won? Just to back it up from there, I won. I like to win.” He was then asked about his handicap, which was clearly displayed when he said “he won” 17 times.
Trump did answer, “Very low. I have a very low handicap.” OK, maybe he didn’t answer. This is like in the film Rain Man, when Raymond Babbitt says, “I’m an excellent driver,” which had only been done in his driveway, much like Trump being a good golfer only on his courses. This win is as suspicious as The Grinch winning the Who’s Christmas Cheer Award.
This golf win is amazing because it’s Trump’s third win this year. That’s three tournament wins within four months. Trump is on golf fire because he won two tournaments last year, and he didn’t even play the first round in one of those. He won two other tournaments two years ago. Of course, all these wins were on his golf courses. He’s not just winning tournaments as he was also voted the 2024 Trump International Golf Club Most Improved Player. He’s 78 years old, and he’s improving?
That would be like me winning the Clay Jones 2024 Most Awesome Cartoonist in the World award. I could probably say something like Trump did: “Such a great honor!”
What’s weird about all these tournament wins is that there are never any videos of them. Even the photo Laura Loomer posted on Twitter/X, to suck up to Trump, was taken from a long distance, meaning an amateur took it because they wouldn’t allow a real photojournalist near the “tournament.”
Even those palm trees had to sign an NDA. Why didn’t they just take the photo from the International Space Station?
Rick Reilly, the author of Commander In Cheat, tweeted in all caps after a Trump tournament win last month, “REALLY? THAT’S AMAZING, SIR! CONGRATS TO YOU, THE CADDIES WHO KICK YOUR BALL OUT OF THE ROUGH, THE STOOLIES WHO LET YOU WIN OR GET THROWN OUT OF THE CLUB, THE SPINELESS PRO AT YOUR CLUB WHO DOESN’T WANT TO GET FIRED, AND THE 100S OF FEET OF GIMMIES YOU GIVE YOURSELF! BRAVO!
After that “win,” Reilly said, “He’s never won a championship at a course he doesn’t own and operate. He’s played in Pebble Beach. He’s played in the Tahoe one, where there are rules and judges and cameras. And in those, he’s never finished in the top half. So, he wins when anybody who disagrees that he won is out of the club. That’s how he gets it.”
Reilly also said that Trump has a “turbo-charged golf cart” so he can get ahead of the competition and put some distance between him and his opponents, giving him “time to cheat.”
Think about it. Other golfers who share Trump’s politics see the president of the United States (sic) kicking the ball on a course he owns and then winning the tournament aren’t going to call him out. Trump once stole a child’s golf ball, and when the kid tried to speak up, his father silenced him. For Republicans, it’s OK if Trump steals little boys’ balls.
After Trump’s win in January, Shark Tank host and Trump sycophant Kevin O’Leary tweeted the announcement saying Trump won with a “sizzling” round of 68, later saying, “It was a great day.” Except when Trump’s name was posted at the top of the leaderboard, all the players and attendees were taken by surprise because nobody had seen Trump that day. How “sizzling” is it to win a tournament you didn’t play in? How fast is that golf cart?
The point of all this is just how petty Trump is and that it’s supported and enabled by his cult and staff. The White House and Laura Loomer are sending him congratulations like these things are real. Is there someone assigned to applaud every morning when he successfully puts his pants on all by himself? I’m surprised the White House doesn’t announce, “BREAKING!” every time he wipes his own ass (does he?). His golf “wins” are about as transparent as DOGE. There’s as much evidence of Trump’s tournament “wins” as there’s evidence of 200-year-olds collecting Social Security.
The other point is how obtuse and out of touch he is with the country. While the economy is tanking and people are protesting in every city and soldiers are being buried, he’s kissing Saudi ass and pretending to play golf.
Trump’s golf resorts need fewer bed bugs and more alligators.
Creative note: I’ve seen way too many cartoons with the graph arrow-thingy being Trump’s tie. Just be glad I didn’t do a mind-if-I-play-through cartoon.
Music note: I didn’t listen to any music today, but did I mention I lost my Airpods in Washington? I’m still bummed about it.
My editor proposed two stories for me to cover last week, and I chose both. The first was on cuts to Friends of the Rappahannock. The other was on cuts to the Fredericksburg Food Bank. Both stories are important to this area, and as it turns out, one of them is important nationwide.
Think of all the government workers Elon has laid off who can’t afford groceries because of Trump’s recession and inflation, and now they can’t get any assistance from the food banks.
It’s not all bad news. There’s still enough money in the budget for Donald Trump’s golf trips, asshole billionaires and trust-fund babies will still get another huge tax cut, Elon will continue scoring government contracts to add to the $38 billion he’s already got from the government.
I’m so glad I got to experience the Hands-Off protest yesterday. A blog for that is coming later today.
Creative note: I drew this at Starbucks on Friday night. I wanted to complete this week’s cartoon for the Advance so I could focus on covering the DOGE protest in Washington, DC.
Now, I’m writing this blog on the train home.
Music note: I listened to Pete Yorn while coloring.
EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration has acknowledged that it grabbed a Maryland father with protected status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador—but claims that courts are powerless to order his return, @NickMiroff reports: https://t.co/GLR1VzwGzE
The Trump Administration admitted in court filings that it made “an administrative error” when it deported a protected status holder—the father and husband of U.S. citizens—to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Trump’s tariffs are a direct attack on Europe. We won’t let it slide. The EU is gearing up to strike back: IP rights suspension, blocking U.S. tech giants from public contracts, and more. This isn’t just a trade war—it’s a sovereignty war. Trump fired the first shot. Europe will… pic.twitter.com/wZQKm2sUaN
Shoppers in Denmark boycott American goods over Trump admin's push to own Greenland: “We love the U.S. and the culture, but we just dislike the president." https://t.co/fZgeN26vgm via @nbcnews
— Lesley Abravanel 🪩 (@lesleyabravanel) April 1, 2025
MASSIVE SHIFTPro-democracy channels on YouTube are now growing faster than right-wing channels for the first time.MeidasTouch is proud to lead the way as the fastest-growing YouTube channel in Q1 2025.Keep this momentum going: YouTube.com/@meidastouch
Almost half of the country’s health insurance now rests in the hands of a man who once sold miracle pills — with zero proof they worked — on daytime TV.
It is imperative that the stories of transgender people real and fictional are told.We cannot allow ourselves to be forced into defending our very human existence at all turns, cornered by baseless accusations and animus from talking heads and politicians.The onus of hearsay is on them. Not us.
Palestine is undergoing a daily mass slaughter event. The Holocaust of Gaza is underway and the US Senate just approved another $8.8 billion in military aid to Israel.The shots out of Rafah that aren't of dead children are nothing short of apocalyptic
He’s tanking the economy, destroying our standing in the world, depriving women and LGBTQ communities of their fundamental rights, attacking the environment, disappearing legal immigrants, gutting Veteran’s benefits and Social Security. And he’s making you pay for his golf trips while he’s at it.
No one has ever been released from CECOT in El Salvador. I imagine Bukele will not allow it simply because this Kilmar will talk to the media in the US and could be a witness for ICC investigations into human rights abuses.
He’s tanking the economy, destroying our standing in the world, depriving women and LGBTQ communities of their fundamental rights, attacking the environment, disappearing legal immigrants, gutting Veteran’s benefits and Social Security. And he’s making you pay for his golf trips while he’s at it.
If Trumpty-Dumpty is working with the Russians to screw up America, he's doing a great job. Eggs, $11 a dozen. Health & Human Services down the dumper, ditto VA. If you call Social Security, they tell you to call back later. Guys 'n gals, this is more fucked up than Peter O'Toole on his birthday.
“Trump is a scab. Musk is a scab. They hate unions. They’ve put the National Labor Relations Board into a coma, illegally firing a board member so that the board no longer has a quorum and can no longer take most actions. But the tactics the LA teachers used to organize their victory under the last Trump regime didn’t rely on the NLRB – it relied on worker power. That power is only stronger today. The NLRB exists because workers built power when unions were illegal. Killing the NLRB doesn’t kill worker power. Worker power comes from workers, not the government”
These rubes still think they are getting checks in the mail because of Musk. This is how someone like Trump gets elected – people will believe any promise if they are made by convincing liars, regardless of overwhelming evidence that they are habitual frauds. https://t.co/zRA9C6QMAR
I didn’t intend for this to be a deep, thought-provoking cartoon when I started it, with the intention of it being drawn just for kicks and to take advantage of the fake holiday. I rarely ever do April Fools cartoons, and I’m sure this theme has been done in the past by other cartoonists.
But when I think about it, there is some depth to this cartoon as it highlights some of the many horrifying absurdities of Donald Trump. Every time I do cartoons like this, a reader will always tell me I forgot something. Well, duh. There’s only so much space in a cartoon. But let’s cover the issues in the cartoon.
Democracy over fascism: Trump’s talking about a third term. Nuff said?
Hiring weirdos: Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, RFK Jr, Linda McMahon, Kristi Noem, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller, etc, etc. These are all goons and lunatics, most of whom are not qualified for their positions. Case in point, the Signal group chat controversy where nobody has been fired yet. Trump’s asking around if he should fire Mike Waltz, his National Security Advisor, who added the journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chat. But I think too much time has passed for that. Trump could have come off as a tough guy who takes national security seriously if he had fired Waltz last Wednesday, not a week later, after asking for everyone’s opinion, from Sean Hannity to the janitor who empties his waste basket.
Who is Trump asking whether he should fire Walzt or not? Everyone in his vicinity was on the chat.
Obeying court orders: So far, at least two court orders have been violated by the Trump administration (sic). They won’t be the last.
Eat a salad: This is one where I encourage him to continue to eat hamberders and KFC. Trump is 78, and a single Trump meal from McDonald’s is around 2,000 calories. I’m not the healthiest eater in the world, but after a few days of meat, I need a salad…and I kinda hate salads. Boring. I look forward to my meals when traveling, but I know I’ll have to squeeze a salad or two in during a trip, especially in Chicago. And it doesn’t matter what I eat at McDonald’s (which can be a treat when in the right mood), I feel horrible after.
RFK Jr described Trump’s diet as “poison” and said the only options on the campaign plane were KFC and Big Macs. Corey Lewandowsky said his typical McDonald’s order was two Big Macs, two Filet O Fishes, and a large chocolate shake, but we’ve seen several photos with fries included.
His former chef said Trump would always say, “No garbage with it” when ordering a burned steak with ketchup. The “garbage” was garnish and vegetables. Ironically, it’s the chef who has passed away.
People are not all made the same. How people like Keith Richards and Ozzy Osbourne are still alive is a mystery of science. Maybe Trump is made like one of those people where he can live longer than Betty White on a diet of Adderal and hot dogs. I don’t wish death or any physical harm on anyone, not even Trump, but I won’t mind if he skips the salads.
My question here is, did he eat that entire bucket by himself? My hands are greasy just looking at the photo.
Nazis: Trump supports Nazis. He deports Muslims while pardoning Nazis. He claims good people march with Nazis who “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.” Nazis vote for Trump. Trump hired a Nazi, who gave Sieg Heils at one of his inauguration events, to find “waste” and “fraud” in the government.
I’m almost guaranteed to be yelled at by a MAGAt each time I mention Nazis in Trump and Elon cartoons. A lot of the people screaming at me are repeat screamers. They’ll say, “Nazis were socialists because that word’s in the name.” And yes, Elon did give TWO Nazi salutes. Sorry, MAGAts.
Golf: Not only won’t he stop cheating at golf, but he won’t stop bilking us for his golf trips. His golf outings aren’t just expensive for taxpayers, but a lot of that money, over $26 million so far in Trump 2.0, goes to Trump’s resorts.
Threatening allies: He insults Canada’s sovereignty when he threatens to make our northern neighbors a third state. He talks out of ignorance when he threatens to take the Panama Canal. Now, he and his goons are talking about taking Greenland by force, as if it was taken from us. Trump talks about Greenland the way Hitler talked about Czechoslovakia.
Ogling Cats: Who wants to hear Grandpa talk sexually about women dressed as cats? That’ll make you leave the room. Trump described the time he saw the play, saying, “I walked in, I saw all these bodies, and then I noticed those bodies were gorgeous. They had silk tights on, and they were all ballerinas and women from Broadway.” Did he also notice they were made up as cats? Does this make Trump a furry? I didn’t think Trump could get creepier. He literally wants to grab them by the pussy.
Grifting: Every president absolves himself of his businesses, except Trump. Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm, but Trump keeps grifting. He’s still selling merchandise and can even be bribed through his cryptocurrency. Also, re-read the paragraph on his golf grift.
Oligarchs: Elon, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others are oligarchs. This is not a good thing for a democracy.
DOGE being transparent: Despite the claims, DOGE is NOT transparent, which should concern us all.
Lies: Trump told over 35,000 lies during his first term (sic). Can he top that in his second? Don’t underestimate him.
Groping: If Trump isn’t groping now, it’s only because he’s in the limelight. At least 26 women have accused Trump of rape, kissing, groping, walking into teenage dressing rooms, and even looking under skirts. He’s a real-life Quagmire. Giggity. He has cheated on all three of his wives. He often compliments a woman’s looks when he speaks of them, as thought that’s all they’re worth. And we just learned you can’t leave him alone with your cat.
Tariffs: More tariffs are planned for all of our trading partners, starting tomorrow, which Trump is calling “Liberation Day.” Let’s hope that’s an April Fools joke because tariffs are dumb.
Now, I’ve created a challenge for myself, which is to re-do this cartoon for April Fools 2026 but with new issues.
Readers, tell me what I missed.
Creative notes: I started this cartoon yesterday, Sunday. I always want to deliver a holiday cartoon at least two days before a holiday, but since most editors weren’t in the office yesterday, they wouldn’t have received this until today, the day before the holiday. So I went ahead and did my deportation cartoon yesterday (and finished it very late in the day), then finished up this cartoon late last night. I spent my entire Sunday working except during dinner when I watched a couple of episodes of 30 Rock, which I’ve been trying to finish for a few years.