Leopard Eats Lisa Murkowski's Face

"I have been hung out to dry"

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You’ve probably encountered the “Face-Eating Leopards Party” meme making the rounds on social media pages.

For the uninitiated, it’s a satirical jab at people who support politicians or policies that are obviously harmful—right up until those policies come back to bite them, at which point they’re shocked, shocked to discover that leopards, in fact, eat faces.

Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski recently found herself starring in the meme’s latest, and perhaps most literal, adaptation.

“I Have Been Hung Out to Dry”—By the Very Leopards I Invited to Dinner

Let’s not bury the lede: Lisa Murkowski didn’t just get outmaneuvered—she got publicly pantsed by the very administration she enabled.

After casting the deciding vote for President Trump’s legislative Frankenstein—one she herself called “bad”—Murkowski watched in real time as Trump gleefully shredded the Alaska-specific deals she’d wrung from the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”

First, there was the much-touted 12-month extension of clean energy tax credits, a lifeline for Alaska’s renewable energy projects and rural communities.

Murkowski had trumpeted this as a win for her state, only to see Trump sign an executive order that yanked those credits away before the ink on her press release was even dry.

So much for green jobs and rural grid upgrades—Alaska’s clean energy sector was left holding the bag, and Murkowski was left holding her head in her hands.

Then came the food stamp fiasco. Murkowski had negotiated a temporary reprieve from stricter work requirements for Alaskans relying on SNAP. This provision would have spared thousands of rural and Indigenous families from losing their only reliable source of food assistance.

But Trump’s executive order steamrolled that, too, reinstating the harsh requirements and leaving Alaska’s most vulnerable residents to fend for themselves. The “reprieve” turned out to be as sturdy as a snowman in July.

And let’s not forget Medicaid. Murkowski’s “victory” was a two-year delay in devastating Medicaid cuts for Alaska—a stay of execution, not a pardon.

With Trump’s policies and the bill’s broader cuts looming, rural hospitals across the state are now bracing for closures, layoffs, and a return to the days when “healthcare” meant a medevac to Anchorage—if you were lucky.

Murkowski’s reaction? “I feel cheated,” she told reporters, as if she’d just discovered that the Face-Eating Leopards Party was, in fact, pro-face-eating.

“I have been hung out to dry.” It’s almost touching—if you ignore the fact that the rest of the country, minus a tax break for whaling captains, got thrown under the bus right alongside her.

“I Never Thought Leopards Would Eat My Face,” Sobs Senator Who Voted for the Face-Eating Leopards Party

Lisa Murkowski has spent years attempting to cultivate an image as the last reasonable Republican in the room.

So when President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”—a legislative monster of tax cuts for the rich, Medicaid evisceration, and a $150 billion border security bonanza—landed in her lap, she did what any principled lawmaker would do: she called it bad, wrung her hands, and then voted for it anyway.

Let’s be clear: Murkowski didn’t just vote for the bill. She was the deciding vote, the one that cracked the Senate’s 50-50 deadlock and handed Vice President J.D. Vance the pleasure of breaking the tie.

In the process, she sold out the entire country—minus, of course, a few thousand square miles of Alaska, which she managed to bubble-wrap with a handful of bespoke carveouts.

Welcome to Reality, Suckers — Time to "Find Out"

They F*ed Around, Now It’s Time to Make Them Find Out

“This Bill Is Bad, But I’m Voting for It Anyway” — A Masterclass in Legislative Courage

Murkowski’s logic, if you can call it that, was a marvel of political acrobatics. She admitted the bill was “not good enough for the rest of our nation—and we all know it.”

She lamented the “awful process” and the “agonizing” 24 hours she spent negotiating. She even confessed to “struggling mightily” with the impacts of cutting Medicaid and food stamps for her own constituents.

But, she reasoned, the bill was going to pass anyway, so why not make sure Alaska got a few extra fish heads before the rest of the country starved?

And what did Alaska get for Murkowski’s soul? A two-year delay in Medicaid cuts. A temporary reprieve from food stamp work requirements. A tax break for whaling captains (because, of course).

And, for a brief, shining moment, a 12-month extension of clean energy tax credits—until President Trump, in a fit of executive spite, yanked those away with the stroke of a pen.

“My Sincere Hope Is That This Is Not the Final Product”—Spoiler: It Was

Perhaps the most darkly comic twist in this saga is Murkowski’s last-ditch hope that the House would send the bill back to the Senate for revisions.

“My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,” she said, crossing her fingers and tossing the hot potato across the Capitol.

The House, in a rare display of efficiency, passed the bill without so much as a backward glance. The leopard had eaten its fill, and there would be no regurgitation.

The Art of the Self-Own

In the end, Murkowski’s performance is a case study in the perils of trying to outsmart the leopards.

She voted for a bill she knew was bad, justified it with a handful of temporary perks for her state, and then acted surprised when the whole thing blew up in her face.

The rest of the country gets gutted social programs, a ballooning deficit, and a tax code even more rigged for the rich.

Alaska receives a two-year reprieve and a tax break for whalers. Murkowski gets to star in the meme she so richly deserves.

So, the next time you see that “Face-Eating Leopards Party” meme, spare a thought for Lisa Murkowski. She didn’t just vote for the leopards—she invited them in, set the table, and then acted shocked when they went for her face.

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