When President Donald Trump weighed in after the Seattle mayoral election to brand the winner, Katie Wilson, a communist, it was yet another example of national politics intruding on local political decisions.
But it isn’t just politics, it is economic policies, technological innovations and upheaval in the federal government that are having major impacts at the local level. Sometimes, it feels as if nothing is merely local anymore. To kick off the new year, I reached back through my cartoons from 2025 and found five that illustrate this new dynamic:
ICE at the border
The Trump administration’s amped-up war on undocumented immigrants has hit the Seattle area and the border crossings with British Columbia. American citizens and foreign travelers have sometimes found it difficult to return to the United States from Canada if there is any remote question of their immigration status. Add to that Trump’s blather about making Canada the 51st state, and many Canadians who used to head south to Seattle for visits are now staying away.
Tariffs and the port
Last year, locals who keep track of these things noticed a dearth of cargo ships cruising into Elliott Bay. Where did those ships go? Not here. Trump’s erratic and onerous tariffs on foreign goods depressed trade and raised prices on imported products for Americans already struggling to pay monthly bills.
Musk and national parks
One of the glories of living in the Puget Sound region is that there are three national parks that can be reached in under three hours from the center of Seattle. Thus, it was an affront to local sensibilities when Trump unleashed wacky billionaire Elon Musk to gut much of the federal government, including the National Parks Service. Musk’s demolition derby barely made a dent in the national debt, but left the already underfunded national parks understaffed and struggling.
Federal assault on Portland
When protesters around the country turned out to confront marauding, masked ICE agents, Trump took the opportunity to send National Guard units into several American cities, including our neighbor to the south, Portland. Trump’s crazed rhetoric about anarchy in the streets of Seattle made many wonder if the Emerald City would also be invaded by federal troops. Luckily, that has not happened… yet.
AI outflanks politicians
Tech companies like our little local shop, Microsoft, are pouring billions of dollars into the development of artificial intelligence and smart people are saying the result will be massive unemployment when human workers are replaced by robots. Already, entry level jobs in tech are being taken by AI, leaving recent college graduates scrambling to find work. Meanwhile, too many politicians continue to talk as if nothing in the economy has changed since 1955.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
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