News Org Denies Firing Cartoonist Over Trump Depiction

Michael de Adder

A Canadian publishing company ended its contract with a political cartoonist after a cartoon of his went viral that showed President Trump standing over the bodies of two dead migrants.

Michael de Adder's cartoon was based on a photo that was seen worldwide showing the bodies of a migrant father and his toddler daughter who drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande to get into the U.S. from Mexico.

The cartoon showed Trump standing next to a golf cart and holding a golf club while looking down at the bodies and saying, "Do you mind if I play through?"

De Adder revealed on Twitter that he'd been terminated from newspapers owned by Brunswick News Inc. after 17 years, saying, "The highs and lows of cartooning.

"Today I was just let go from all newspapers in New Brunswick."

Brunswick News Inc. denied Sunday that De Adder's contract had been ended because of the cartoon, calling it a "false narrative which has emerged carelessly and recklessly on social media," and saying they'd been in negotiations for weeks to replace him with a past cartoonist they described as a "reader favorite."

However, the president of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists, Wes Tyrell, charged in a Facebook statement that de Adder was fired because Trump is a, quote, "taboo subject" for Brunswick News Inc. because of the U.S. business ties of the company's owner.