January 27, 2021

January 26, 2021

January 25, 2021

January 24, 2021

January 23, 2021

January 22, 2021

January 21, 2021

January 20, 2021
Trump leaves office. The nightmare is over.
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Trump leaves office. The nightmare is over.

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January 20, 2021
For these last seven days (hopefully) of TRUMPTRUMP I’m writing about the project. This is day 7, see the others below Today: THE END
It’s over and after posting this I will post the last TRUMPTRUMP of his presidency. There will be another week of...

For these last seven days (hopefully) of TRUMPTRUMP I’m writing about the project. This is day 7, see the others below Today: THE END

It’s over and after posting this I will post the last TRUMPTRUMP of his presidency. There will be another week of drawings as wild beasts and monsters eat the goo he melted down into. Trump’s poison will linger and infect.

My plan was to, over the last month, slowly take out and “kill” all my recurring characters, both figures in Trump’s orbit and the flotsam I had running around. Knives, spiders, klansmen.

The attempted coup on Jan 6 stopped that plan for me, so it’s been the past four days where the Trump enablers have had swords stuck in their heads and are gone. All my little friends gone, Never for me (hopefully) to draw again.

Here’s what I have learned at the end of this about Trump: He is a hollow, sad person. Fragile, stupid, incurious, clever, but has the advantage over everyone because he sincerely believes the lies he spreads. We will never get a moment of satisfaction where he repents. Our comfort should be, in addition to prosecutions and shunning, that no one likes him and all the people around him are damaged and hurt. His children have a deep sadness in them. His wife is drained of any humanity she may have had. Even his adoring cult followers are wild-eyed and confused about him. He is already Lear on the heath and he will never get back.

Here’s what I have learned at the end of this about drawing: You can get better by doing something every day. It is a good feeling to make something good.  Drawing (or any kind of making) is a shield and a sword. One has to find validation in the work because it will not come from the world. Pencils are delights.

Here’s what I have learned at the end of this about America: We are so deeply submerged in stories we tell ourselves that we have a very hard time telling fact from fiction. Trump saw this and worked it hard. I think those of us committed to justice, equity and dignity should maybe do the same.

Here’s what I have learned at the end of this about me: I’m stubborn, I’m much more lefty than I thought I was and I now have a lexicon to articulate that. Setting up organized systems makes big projects easier. Steal from other artists. I believe in drawing as a way to find, document and illuminate.

There were many times I lamented this project because I was part of the Trump ego ecosystem. Even us who hate him are part of his machine. I tried to mitigate that.

I am glad to not have to draw him, but I will miss drawing spiders and webs, klansmen, walls. I enjoyed the daily exploration of FINDING how to draw something and even know looking back I feel a great satisfaction when I see some of the drawings.

Thanks again to everyone. I’m sorry we had to go through this. THE END

January 19, 2021
For these last seven days (hopefully) of TRUMPTRUMP I’m writing about the project. This is day 6, see the others at www.trumptrump.biz Today: How I did it and what is next,
The drawings would start with what was going on. Most of the time I would...

For these last seven days (hopefully) of TRUMPTRUMP I’m writing about the project. This is day 6, see the others at www.trumptrump.biz Today: How I did it and what is next,

The drawings would start with what was going on. Most of the time I would just do an online search for “Trump Administration” to see what they were up to. I’d find things in big newspapers, small newspapers, twitter feeds, trade magazines…If nothing turned up for the day that way there was always Trump’s twitter feed which never failed to be filled with horrors. I had two Google calendars for the project: “Trump” and “Trump Done” to keep track of days I might have missed. 

Yes, there were days I missed and went back to once in awhile. The biggest gap was in August 2017 when the Unite the Right rally stomped all over Charlottesville where I live. I just couldn’t draw that week, but I went back later and filled in. Most days I would not plan them out but I did try (after the first few months) to have a continuity between days. I did some months as 4-panel comics. Sometimes I would plan them out in my sketchbooks, or draw from other artists’ work to steal things from them and use later.

Later in the project I would look back at past years to echo those drawings, especially at Christmas and New Years. Last fall the ones leading up to the election mirrored those in 2016, with, happily, different results.

For the first few months I drew on notecards, but once Trump took office I drew on vellum finish bristol board. I bought 12x9 in. pads of on sale and chopped the pages in half. I almost always drew in pencil using cheap mechanical pencil from Staples or wherever.

I also used a fancy .3 pencil and a few chunky graphite-holders too. The past few months I’ve also used the super-deluxe Palomino Blackwing. When I drew in ink I used a Pentel brush pen. Large black areas I filled in and any screentones were added digitally in Photoshop.

After drawing I would scan them grayscale at 600 dpi. I saved the scans, and after cropping, adjusting levels and doing a little clean up would save them with file names like 21-01-20.jpg to organize by date. I use Backblaze for off-site backup and Time Machine for local.

TRUMPTRUMP.biz is set up on tumblr. When this thing started in 2016 it was a good platform for quick sites and since I didn’t expect this to go on this long (he was supposed to LOSE) I figured it would be ok.

Tumblr has been fine but if I did this again I would set up a simple Wordpress of Drupal blog on my own space. I don’t like being at the mercy of tech bros and I plan to move TT over to my own space at some point.

I bought TRUMPTRUMP.biz as a domain which is still funny to me. .biz lol.  After uploading I’d share on dedicated Facebook, instagram and twitter feeds. I’ve kept all three through the project but after it’s over I’ll be deleting Facebook at least.

Tomorrow the project is done, or rather almost done. As I had planned in 2016, for a week after he is gone I’ll draw beasts and monsters eating the goo he melted down into, pooping it out and maybe eating it again. Trump’s poison lingers.

After TRUMPTRUMP is done I’ll continue drawing LADYH8RS and USAH8RS (including all the congresspeople who voted for the coup). I’ll also draw more poetry comics and a new project, the opposite of TRUMPTRUMP, where I draw nice portraits of government workers who are helpers.

I also plan some print collections of TRUMPTRUMP, similar to the ones Retrofit made, but softcover and spanning whole years. Stay tuned.

I can’t believe this is almost over.

January 19, 2021
The Trump Administration releases the partially plagiarized and historically inaccurate “1776 Project” which excuses America’s history of slavery, derides the legacy of the civil rights movement and equates progressivism with totalitarianism.
This is...

The Trump Administration releases the partially plagiarized and historically inaccurate “1776 Project” which excuses America’s history of slavery, derides the legacy of the civil rights movement and equates progressivism with totalitarianism.

This is Trump’s last full day in office.

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January 19, 2021
Trump lied thousands of times as president, including “The Big Lie” that he won the election which cause the January 6 coup attempt and will destabilize the U.S. for years.
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Trump lied thousands of times as president, including “The Big Lie” that he won the election which cause the January 6 coup attempt and will destabilize the U.S. for years.

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January 19, 2021
The Trump Administration leaves office with the worst economic record since the Great depression 80 years ago.
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The Trump Administration leaves office with the worst economic record since the Great depression 80 years ago.

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January 19, 2021
Trump administration slashes imperiled spotted owls’ habitat
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Trump administration slashes imperiled spotted owls’ habitat

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January 19, 2021
611 children are still in custody at the border and the Trump Administration can’t find their parents.
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611 children are still in custody at the border and the Trump Administration can’t find their parents.

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