Garrison originally wanted to pursue a career in the fine arts, but later began working as a graphic artist at the San Angelo Standard-Times instead, where his first editorial cartoon was published in 1980. He only began making political cartoons after the financial crisis of 2007–2008, which prompted him to resume drawing after a 20-year hiatus. In 2010, Garrison uploaded a cartoon to the Internet depicting the Eye of Providence kicking members of the public with its legs, which correspond to both the Democratic and Republican parties. Subsequently, an Internet troll on 4chan posted an edited version of the cartoon in which the Eye of Providence has been replaced by an anti-Semitic caricature of a Jewish man. Internet trolls later edited some of Garrison's other cartoons in a similar fashion, and he has since been called the "most trolled cartoonist in the world". Garrison is often linked to white supremacy and anti-Semitism, leading to his refuted inclusion on a list of alleged Ku Klux Klan members leaked by Anonymous. In May 2016, a cartoon of Garrison's comparing Michelle Obama and Melania Trump drew national attention. The cartoon showed a "scowling, masculine and dowdy" Obama contrasted against a smiling and feminine Trump, with the caption "Make the first lady great again!" The Anti-Defamation League found Garrison's 2017 cartoon depicting a withered green hand, coming out of a coat sleeve labeled "Rothschilds" with a yellow-triangle cufflink, as puppet master to George Soros who in turn controls puppets H. R. McMaster and David Petraeus, to be anti-Semitic. Garrison replied: "nowadays anyone who even mentions the ‘R’ word is smeared as anti-Semitic. Now they want any criticism of George Soros to be silenced by the same means. They use the anti-Semitism insult as a tactic to silence critics." In July 2018, former Texas congressman and presidential candidate, Ron Paul, tweeted a comic attributed to Ben Garrison that depicted racial stereotypes assaulting Uncle Sam. However, the comic was found to not be Garrison's; instead it is a 2008 cartoon by Carlos Latuff, edited with faces taken from A. Wyatt Mann's works. His online attacks on survivors of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting have also drawn criticism. On July 7, 2019, he was invited to the White House for a "Social Media Summit", but he was then subsequently uninvited four days later on July 11 following complaints from the Anti-Defamation League and others. They took issue with a cartoon he drew, commissioned by Mike Cernovich, that has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic.
