Spiked Bezos-Trump Cartoon Goes Viral After Its Creator Wins the Pulitzer Prize For ‘Fearless’ Commentary

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The Washington Post on Monday celebrated the Pulitzer Prize win of Ann Telnaes, the longtime cartoonist who quit the Post in protest after a scathing cartoon lambasting Jeff Bezos, the Post’s billionaire owner, was spiked by her editors.

The Post put together an article following the Pulitzer announcements titled, “Read The Washington Post’s 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners.” The article noted Telnaes’s win for illustrated reporting and commentary, quoting the winning announcement, “For delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity — and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.”

The spiked cartoon that Telnaes resigned in protest over also quickly went viral after her win, which as her second having won the same Pulitzer in 2001. The Post’s commentary on her win included a full biography of Telnaes, but did not again mention her leaving the paper and did not included the cartoon in the sampling of her work it also ran.

“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote in early January of her resignation. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’” Telnaes’s cartoon showed the corporate owners of major papers, including Bezos, offering Donald Trump bags of money as an offering — a reference to donations made to Trump’s inauguration. Mickey Mouse can also be seen groveling on the ground in front of Trump, an apparent swipe at Disney for settling a Trump lawsuit against ABC News.

Many in the media shared the spike cartoon and praised Telnaes for standing on principle. “Congratulations to ⁦@AnnTelnaes⁩ who resigned from the ⁦@washingtonpost⁩ when this political cartoon of tech executives groveling at the feet of ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ was rejected by the paper. Yesterday it was announced she won a Pulitzer Prize,” wrote Katie Couric on X.

Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson added, “Amazing. Ann Telnaes just won a Pulitzer Prize for her work at The Washington Post — which she resigned from after they refused to run this cartoon.”

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