No matter how many times I hear it, I still can’t believe that America elected a bigoted, orange reality TV star for president.
Facebook feeds everywhere are showing us the protests against Trump and the hate crimes committed by Trump supporters. Artist Deborah Kass has given us this depiction of Donald Trump for New York Magazine.
They are comparing President-elect Donald Trump to President Richard Nixon.
New this issue: Team coverage of Trump’s America, including @jonathanchait on Democrats’ and democrats’ strategy https://t.co/yDxgLrBQfr pic.twitter.com/NIwDFPzx5J
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) November 14, 2016
This interesting piece of art pays homage to a painting that Andy Warhol did during the 1972 election.
It depicted President Richard Nixon with similar bright colors and “pop art” style. The caption read “Vote McGovern,” who was Nixon’s opponent. Warhol made Nixon look sickly in the painting.
Here is the Warhol classic:
Art is a powerful way to express your views, raise awareness, make change. NOW might be damn good time for that. Ready? GO (nixon by warhol) pic.twitter.com/EbwR2XTxiy
— the jealous curator (@jealouscurator) November 14, 2016
The magazine editor, Jared Hohlt, said:
“We wanted the cover’s energy to speak to other times of great political uncertainty and upheaval in our nation’s recent history.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHpUq8lB0pQ/
This is about more than just satire. There are some surprising parallels between Trump and Nixon.
Nixon faced a lot of heat over his taxes. He would not release his returns while he was running for president. Instead, he released his returns for the years 1969 through 1972 toward the end of his presidency in 1973.
He was under an audit at the time. That may not seem like a big deal now, but it was a scandal back then. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned a $500,000 donation that Nixon made to charity.
It turns out that Nixon had majorly underpaid on his taxes to the tune of $476,431. It was after this that presidential candidates started releasing their tax returns (until Trump).
Also, Donald Trump actually knew Andy Warhol and did not have a good relationship with him. In the 1980s, Warhol actually did some silkscreens of Trump Tower for Trump and his then wife, Ivana. Trump didn’t want them because they didn’t match the decor in the lobby.
Here is a Hillary Clinton campaign ad talking about this issue:
Featured image via Twitter.
