Our cartoonists look back at a year of covering tragedy, farce and everything in between – and having to draw far too many Donald Trumps
In a year in which I’ve drawn too many cartoons about powerful people acting with impunity, the fall of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor stood out to me as a rare win for justice and accountability. Dark humour feels vital to make light of everything that’s going wrong, but I’ve also been trying to draw cartoons that highlight reasons for hope, such as the fragile ceasefire in Gaza or Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York.
2025 has been remarkable not for what I’ve drawn but for what I haven’t. In 40 years of cartooning I’ve never known such an anonymous government, where nobody recognises 95% of the cabinet (apart from Wes “face like a full Brazilian” Streeting). Whether this is down to Morgan McSweeney’s shenanigans or them keeping their heads down until the day the nightmare ends doesn’t matter: it’s a tragedy. The wasted comic potential to be milked from Pat McFadden – dead spit for Death from a Brueghel painting – is a national disgrace.
This year I have drawn Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin more than anyone else. They are not people I want to spend my time thinking about, or looking at – however nobody is beyond satire and they are both sufficiently unpleasant to make a good caricature. I loathe them, but I approach drawing them with curiosity and the eye of analysis. A caricature is as much about the person’s expressions as it is about their features, and while Trump’s face is very active, Putin’s is still: only his mouth seems to move, so I go for his glare.
