Trump Burning Down The World

I've had this idea in my sketchbook for quite a while, waiting for the right time to do a cartoon on it.

It was inspired by the end scene from James Cagney's movie "White Heat" where Cagney is a crazy gangster who is trapped in a towering inferno and yells out "I'm on top of the world!" as he's engulfed in flames.

These past few weeks, it seems like Trump is burning down the world as he initiates unnecessary wars abroad and destroys our democratic norms and backtracks on the progress America has made in racial, gender and LGBTQIA+ issues.

REFERENCES
"Trump’s All-Out Assault on American Democracy Has Begun" by Sasha Abramsky for The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-assault-american-democ…

"What’s Behind Trump’s New World Disorder? A foreign policy freed of liberal pretenses and imperial ambitions could lead to restraint—or, as the Iran attack shows, simply license hit-and-run belligerence." by Daniel Immerwahr for The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/03/23/whats-behind-trumps-new-w…

"Trump has blown up the world order - and left Europe's leaders scrabbling" by Allan Little for BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2er9j83x0zo

"Calling Trump a Tyrant Is Not a Call to Violence. Conservatives want to police how we talk about Trump—while excusing how the president talks about everyone else." by Jonathan Chait for The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/04/trump-language-policing/68…

"Are We Losing Our Democracy?" an editorial by The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-…

"Trump’s Recklessness Will ‘Haunt Us for a Generation’" by Jamelle Bouie, Michelle Cottle, and David French for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/opinion/trump-iran-save-act-reckless…

"Trump’s War on Iran Makes a Mockery of American Democracy" by Ben Burgis for Jacobin Magazine
https://jacobin.com/2026/03/trump-iran-war-public-opinion

"Trump is destroying America — he must be stopped" by Thomas Reese for The National Catholic Reporter
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/trump-destroying-america…

"Editorial: Trump's threats force Catholics to decide if they will be complicit" an editorial by The National Catholic Reporter
https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/editorial/editorial-trumps-threats-fo…