PHILADELPHIA _ A Pennsylvania newspaper is dropping the popular comic strip "Non Sequitur" over a profane message about President Donald Trump drawn into one of its panels.
Rod Vodenichar, the publisher and general manager of the Butler Eagle, said he made the decision after a reader complained that there was a vulgar message about the president in the comic strip by cartoonist Wiley Miller.
The Sunday comic strip appeared in black and white, and encouraged readers to color in its panels. The profane message appeared in the bottom right of the comic's second panel.
"Neither the Butler Eagle nor any other newspaper that includes this strip had an opportunity to remove it even if they had discovered it before distribution," Vodenichar said on the newspaper's website. "We apologize that such a disgusting trick was perpetuated on the reading public. The Butler Eagle will discontinue that comic immediately."
Miller declined to comment when reached by the Philadelphia Inquirer. But on Twitter on Sunday, he hinted at the message, writing that, "Some of my sharp-eyed readers have spotted a little Easter egg from Leonardo Bear-Vinci."
"Non Sequitur" is syndicated to more than 700 newspapers across the country by Andrews McMeel Syndication. A spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment. As of Monday morning, no other editors had complained publicly about the comic strip's use of profanity.
The cartoon and it's profane language remained up on the GoComics' website Monday.
This is not the first time Miller has gone after Trump within the panels of his satirical comic strip. Back in 2016, he drew a cartoon depicting a man wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe labeled "I'm with Trump." He also included Trump as a jester in a 2017 cartoon about the legend of the Sword in the Stone.
