A figure depicting US President Donald Trump as a cow during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany,Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
An artist works for media on a figure depicting US President Donald Trump as a bull during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany,Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
A figure depicting German Chancellor Angela Merkel sitting on a collapsed horse with the inscription ‘coalition’ is shown during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany,Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
A figure depicting Queen Elizabeth is displayed during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
A figure depicting German Chancellor Angela Merkel is shown during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
A figure depicting leader of German Social Democrats, SPD, Andrea Naples is shown during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
A figure depicting a German nazi is shown during a press preview in a hall of the Mainz carnival club in Mainz, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 
A woman takes pictures on a carnival float during a preview in a hall in Cologne, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) 
People watching a satiric carnival float depicting the Brexit during a preview in a hall in Cologne, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The traditional carnival parades on Rosemonday make fun of politics and are watched by hundreds of thousands in the streets of Cologne, Duesseldorf and Mainz. The traditional carnival parades on Rosemonday make fun of politics and are watched by hundreds of thousands in the streets of Cologne, Duesseldorf and Mainz. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) 
A satiric carnival float depicting the pollution of the ocean with plastic is seen during a preview in a hall in Cologne, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Carnival groups and clubs in Germany are putting their final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s parades during Carnival celebrations. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
BERLIN | Groups and clubs in Germany are putting the final touches on their elaborate floats with outrageous caricatures depicting political themes for this year’s Carnival celebrations.
In a workshop in Mainz on Tuesday, an artist worked studiously on a float featuring a bull with “USA” emblazoned on the side, with a horned head depicting President Donald Trump’s face, a cowbell carrying the Twitter logo, and a rear end expelling flatulence on the globe.
The popular street parades in traditional Carnival strongholds such as Cologne, Duesseldorf and Mainz in western Germany draw millions of dressed-up revelers and schoolchildren every year, and always feature colorful floats that push boundaries with their political parodies that poke fun at the powerful.
Other offerings that will be part of Mainz’s parade next Monday included Chancellor Angela Merkel atop a horse labeled “coalition” collapsed with exhaustion — a nod to fatigue in her longtime government — and Queen Elizabeth II jumping over a border crossing with a German asylum application in hand and faithful corgi at her side to escape her nation’s Brexit squabbles.
In a jab at the Alternative for Germany party, another float depicts a jack-booted neo-Nazi, holding a torch in one hand and giving the stiff-armed Hitler salute with the other, emerging from a campaign poster for the far-right party.