Viral cartoon mocking Donald Trump over India tariff is doctored

A cartoon mocking US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose steep tariffs on India is viral on social media. The illustration, which is in the style of an editorial cartoon, has the headline “How Tariffs Work”. It depicts Trump urinating into a table fan, only to have it redirected onto his own face. The fan features an Indian flag, perhaps implying that the imposition of tariff on Indian exports to the US has backfired on him.

Several social media users have claimed that this cartoon was originally published by international news outlets.  An Instagram user, Chola Ram Jain, shared the cartoon illustration on August 7, 2025. The caption of the post says, “This is a cartoon published in an American newspaper…” (Archive)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Chola Ram Jani (@cholaramjani08)

On Facebook, an account named Indori Bhiya shared the purported cartoon and claimed that a Chinese social media handle had shared this post in support of India. (archive)

Alt News has received several requests to fact-check these claims on the WhatsApp helpline number (7600011160).

Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the cartoon, we conducted a reverse image search. This led us to an X post by Bruce MacKinnon, an editorial cartoonist for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, from February 3, 2025.

In the original illustration, the fan features a red maple leaf, which stands as Canada’s national symbol.

I drew this last November 26th knowing full well no self-respecting family newspaper in the country would be likely to print it. I was right. But given the events of this weekend, I’m gonna to let ‘er rip anyway.#USA #Canada #tariffs @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/486u7iJaEq

— Bruce MacKinnon (@CH_Cartoon) February 2, 2025

Note the difference in the side-by-side comparison below:

As readers can see, the original illustration was signed by MacKinnon and dated ’11/26/2024′. The edited version, too, has the same signature. If one observes carefully, one would also notice that the Indian flag is not drawn, instead, a digital image has been superimposed on the original illustration.

According to MacKinnon, the cartoon was created in November 2024 as a reaction to Trump’s tariff measures against Canada, but he was sure that no “self-respecting family newspaper” in Canada would print it. However, given the events that unfolded on February 1st, the cartoon became relevant again. 

On February 1, 2025, Trump imposed a 25% additional tariff on most imports from Canada and Mexico to hold them “accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into (our) the country..” 

To sum up, the viral cartoon being circulated as a commentary on US imposing tariff on Indian imports is not authentic. The image is a digitally manipulated version of an illustration which featured a maple leaf from the Canadian flag, and not the Indian Tricolour. Needless to say, the claim that international news outlets published the illustration is also false.