Trump Campaign Posts Cartoon Ridiculing “Dr. Faucet”

The New York Daily News reports:

The gloves are off with Dr. Fauci. Even as coronavirus spirals out of control, a top Trump campaign official has posted a crude caricature depicting the trusted pandemic doc as a dictatorial “Dr. Faucet” flushing the nation’s economic recovery down the drain.

“If I’m going to disagree with a colleague, such as yourself, it’s done publicly — and not cowardly, behind journalists with leak,” wrote Dan Scavino, who runs the reelection effort’s sprawling social media operation.

“Shut him off!” the cartoon declares. Openly attacking Fauci is emerging as a key part of Trump’s strategy to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic and the economic disaster that it has sparked.

Politico has an update:

Ben Garrison is a popular right-wing cartoonist who was invited by Trump to a July 2019 White House social media summit. Days later, the White House said Garrison was no longer attending after Garrison’s past work elicited outrage and was labeled as anti-Semitic.

One Garrison cartoon from 2017 featured an ominous hand, labeled “Rothschilds,” controlling prominent Jewish, progressive financier George Soros with puppet strings. In the cartoon, Soros himself had David Petraeus and H.R. McMaster attached to puppet strings.

The Anti-Defamation League called the cartoon “blatantly anti-Semitic” and said Garrison attempted to portray McMaster as a puppet of a Jewish conspiracy — playing into centuries-old hateful tropes that accuse Jews of controlling the government.