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A Washington Post cartoonist announced that she resigned from the newspaper this week because it rejected her cartoon depicting Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos as subservient to President-elect Trump.
Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes wrote about her Substack page On Friday, she announced her resignation from the channel, accusing it of distorting the cartoon because it criticized the billionaire.
In the article “Why I’m Leaving The Washington Post,” Telnaes said, “I had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some disagreements—about cartoons I submitted for publication, but in all that time I never had a cartoon.” , who was killed because of who or what I have aimed my pen at until now.
A Washington Post cartoonist announced she was resigning from the paper after her cartoon mocking Post owner Jeff Bezos sparked uproar. ((Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage) ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
The cartoonist shared a rough draft of the unpublished cartoon, which showed Bezos and other unnamed wealthy businessmen kneeling and holding bags of money toward the new president. Mickey Mouse lay on the floor next to them, apparently a representation of Disney’s supposed subservience to Trump.
Telnaes explained her drawing by saying, “The killed cartoon criticizes the billionaire tech and media executives who have done their best to curry favor with the new President Trump.”
Despite the rocky relationship between the two over the years, Bezos expressed his support for Trump following his 2024 election victory. Following Election Day, the Amazon owner told reporters he was “very optimistic“about Trump’s regulatory agenda.
Bezos recently pledged to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. He also had dinner with the new president at his Mar-a-Lago residence in December.
Tech billionaires, including Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have supported Trump since his election victory. (Getty Images)
Bezos also infuriated liberals, including Post employees, shortly before the election by making the decision the newspaper would make don’t do it an endorsement from the president.
Other prominent tech moguls met with Trump in the months after his election victory, including Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Telnaes’ Disney reference appears to be a dig at the company cited as a factor behind ABC News’ recent $15 million settlement with Trump earlier this month.
In her Substack article, Telnaes continued to proclaim her belief that the Post suppressed the cartoon because of its political viewpoint. She wrote: “To be clear, there have been cases where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the perspective inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. This is a turning point… and dangerous for a free press.”
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“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from completing this important task. That’s why I decided to leave the post office,” she added.
However, Washington Post editorial page editor David Shipley, who admitted he made the decision to publish the cartoon himself, rejected her accusation that the Post killed the cartoon for political reasons, saying in a recent statement that he did this to avoid a “repetition” of a story.
He said: “Not every editorial judgment reflects a malevolent force. My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already planned another column – this time a satire.” The only bias was against repetition.
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Telnaes has not yet responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady and Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.
