Political cartoonist Michael de Adder has been dropped from a series of newspapers after his cartoon depicting Donald Trump stepping over a pair of dead migrants while golfing — a cartoon that did not even run in the newspapers — went viral.
The Canadian editorial cartoonist shared on Facebook that he had been let go from all newspapers in New Brunswick over the cartoon, which gained viral interest though was not actually published. As the Daily Cartoonist reported, Michael de Adder’s work had been published in a series of newspapers owned by Brunswick News Inc., but the company dissociated itself with him after the controversial cartoon of Donald Trump.
The cartoon, which Michael de Adder shared both on Facebook and Twitter, used the now-famous image of a migrant father and his young daughter who drowned this week while trying to cross the Rio Grande into the United States. The man and his family had reportedly traveled from El Salvador to seek asylum in the United States, but was denied entry and had been kept at a migrant detention center in Mexico. Critics have blasted the Trump administration for closing legal entry points and denied the legal right of asylum seekers to enter the United States, forcing many of them to attempt more dangerous crossings in the hot desert or, in the case of this migrant, by crossing the Rio Grande.
On Saturday, Trump said that a border wall would have prevented the tragedy.
“If we had walls up, and if we had it hard, the father and the beautiful daughter who drowned … if they thought it was hard to get in, they wouldn’t be coming up. So many lives would be saved,” he said, via CNN .
Michael de Adder’s cartoon showed Donald Trump standing beside a golf cart and peering down at the bodies of the father and his daughter.
“Do you mind if I play through?” Trump says in the cartoon.
Cartoon for June 26, 2019 on #trump #BorderCrisis #BORDER #TrumpCamps #TrumpConcentrationCamps pic.twitter.com/Gui8DHsebl
— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) June 26, 2019
Michael de Adder has seen a wave of support after being let go by the New Brunswick newspapers. Wes Tyrell, the president of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists, released a statement saying de Adder was the victim of politically motivated firing by the owner of the newspapers, J.D. Irving.
“It’s simple really, J.D. Irving, Limited is not only a privately owned conglomerate headquartered in New Brunswick, its also an international behemoth with global reach,” Tyrell said, via the Daily Cartoonist .
“Trade has been an issue since Trump took office, trade that affects the Irvings directly, not to mention a host of other issues. And the President himself is an unknown quantity who punishes those who appear to oppose him.”
Michael de Adder posted a message to his supporters telling them not to look at him as a victim, noting that he still has a successful career and a book coming out in September.