GOP midterm jitters, AI unleashed, Cornell fallout: Editorial cartoons for Oct. 11, 2026

President Donald Trump hit the road last week to campaign for Republican candidates in Ohio, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Texas and his home state of New York. The president is telling voters to pretend he’s on the ballot, which makes some GOP candidates nervous.

Nick Anderson leads this week’s editorial cartoon gallery by illustrating the point. An elephant cowers on a chair, even though he towers over Trump and his shrinking approval rating.

Here in Syracuse, New York, where Trump appeared Friday, only four out of 16 local Republican candidates and party leaders said ahead of time that they planned to attend the president’s rally, citing a newborn baby, dinner plans and an apple festival for skipping it.

Drew Sheneman portrays Trump the GOP as rearranging chairs on a sinking ship. Pedro X. Molina’s Trump spells out “obey me” with stacks of taxpayer money. Mike Luckovich sees the president as a leaping dog in need of a leash. In Michael Ramirez’s view, an adviser suggests that Republicans return to the “limited government, beacon of liberty, fiscally responsible, free-market constitutional conservative formula.”

Other topics in this week’s gallery include rogue attacks by artificial intelligence agents; fallout from the Cornell University gang rape accusations; the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel; and the start of the Supreme Court term.

Cartoons were drawn by Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Phil Hands, David Horsey, Pedro X. Molina, Jack Ohman, Joel Pett, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Steve Breen, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.