Washington Post cartoonist resigns over paper’s refusal to publish satirical cartoon of Bezos and Trump
A file photo of people walking by The Washington Post. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced Friday she had resigned after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon depicting billionaire Post owner Jeff Bezos on bended knee in front of President-elect Donald Trump.
New York (CNN) — Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced Friday she had resigned from The Washington Post after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon depicting billionaire Post owner Jeff Bezos on bended knee in front of President-elect Donald Trump.
Talnaes, who had been with The Post since 2008, wrote in a Substack post announcing her resignation that, “I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.”
The cartoon depicted Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI chief Sam Altman on their knees, handing over bags of cash to a statue of Trump next to a lipstick-holding Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and bowing Mickey Mouse.
Talnaes said the cartoon “criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” satirizing “these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago.”
The Post’s refusal to run the cartoon, Talnaes said, was a “game changer…and dangerous for a free press.”
In a statement Saturday, The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists condemned The Post’s decision, accusing the newspaper of “craven censorship” and “political cowardice.”
“Editorial cartooning is the tip of the spear in opinion, and the Post’s cowering further soils their once-stellar reputation for standing up and speaking truth to power. We weep for the loss of this once great newspaper,” it said, calling on other cartoonists to finish Telnaes’ sketch and post it online in a show of solidarity.
David Shipley, The Post’s opinions editor, said in a statement provided by a newspaper spokeswoman that he respected Telnaes, “but I must disagree with her interpretation of events.”
“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” he said. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column – this one a satire – for publication. The only bias was against repetition.”
The resignation marked the latest high-profile departure from The Post, which has seen several members of its editorial board step down and star reporters exit after Bezos killed an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just weeks before the November election. Bezos’ controversial decision led to a tidal wave of reader backlash, with The Post reporting more than 250,000 readers canceling their subscriptions.
Last month, Bezos dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and Amazon announced it would donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Disney, the parent company of ABC, settled a defamation suit brought by Trump for $15 million in a highly scrutinized decision. And Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said that it was donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund after Zuckerberg met with Trump privately.
The Los Angeles Times, owned by biotech billionaire Soon-Shiong, also announced in October it would not publish its endorsement of Harris, leading to a subscriber revolt and resignation of all but one member of its seven-member editorial board.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
