While the image seems designed to provoke the president's supporters, it's worth noting that powerful politicans, including presidents, have been rendered as any number of barnyard animals throughout American history, particularly during the heyday of politcal cartooning in the 1800s. And as recently as January, Colorado's Durango Herald published a cartoon of a porcine President Trump. But somehow the use of Photoshop here makes the depiction extra jarring.
Chait's story begins,
"My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy," declared Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. "I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States." To the extent that Trump's candidacy offered any positive appeal, as opposed to simple loathing for his opponent, this was it. ... Since Trump took office, his pledge to ignore his own interests has been almost forgotten, lost in a disorienting hurricane of endless news. It is not just a morbid joke but a legitimate problem for the opposition that all the bad news about Trump keeps getting obscured by other bad news about Trump.
The story is accompanied by a separate piece, "501 Days in Swampland," by Joy Crane and Nick Tabor, that nymag.com is promoting on its homepage with the headline "501 Days of Trump & Co. Stealing America Blind."