The March 2025 cartoon by John Darkow shows the ship America sinking while Tesla vehicles including a Cybertruck are thrown overboard. The image updates the Boston Tea Party to reference recent backlash against Elon Musk and Tesla linked to DOGE initiatives and tariffs under the Trump administration. Buyers remorse and anxiety appear as the central visual theme.
Arend van Dam's 2019 cartoon captures the Venezuela crisis with a sinking ship named Venezuela, a man in a sash shouting 'I am your captain' from the top, while figures cling to the tilting deck and others flail in the water. The image uses the tags Venezuela, Maduro, dictator, interim president, Juan Guaidó, national assembly to highlight the political turmoil. The ship's bow points upward, with a periscope-like structure in flag colors, emphasizing the obvious metaphor of a nation going under. People on the deck hold on desperately, and swimmers raise arms, all drawn in simple lines against a blue sky and green sea. This straightforward satire avoids subtlety, making the leadership failure clear without added context.
