Iran protests, ICE in Minnesota, Fed independence: Editorial cartoons for January 18, 2026

Iran’s repressive government appears to have quelled weeks of economic protests by killing thousands and detaining thousands more. Pedro X. Molina leads this week’s editorial cartoon gallery with a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrapped in body bags.

Michael Ramirez puts the theme of the murderous leader more clearly, drawing a ribbon of blood and asking Khamenei, “What red line?” Joey Weatherford looks at the Supreme Leader disappearing despite his promise that the regime will not disappear. Steve Breen, Bill Bramhall and Nick Anderson highlight the hypocrisy of President Donald Trump’s threatened military action to stop the killing of protesters, while noting that a federal immigration agent in Minnesota did it. Luckovich, Ramirez, Molina and Anderson comment directly on the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.

The week began with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell revealing that he had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. Trump criticized Powell’s reluctance to cut interest rates. The Justice Department’s subpoena was widely seen as an effort to undermine the Fed’s independence, which Anderson symbolized as Trump’s red tie around the eagle’s neck.

Other news in this week’s gallery include Trump’s insistence that the United States needs to take over Greenland; Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s New Food Pyramid; and the deaths of “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams and Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir.

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