Washington DC - Cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize winner Ann Telnaes left the Washington Post amid a dispute over one of her drawings critical of the newspaper's owner Jeff Bezos and his relationship with Donald Trump.

Telnaes said the editorial team rejected a draft depicting Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent company Meta, and Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Bezos holding bulging sacks of money and kneeling at the foot of a statue of Trump.

The drawing aimed to criticize how billionaire tech and media executives are striving to curry favor with Trump, she said.

"To be clear: there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon's commentary. That's a game changer... and dangerous for a free press," wrote Telnaes, noting she had worked for the Washington Post since 2008.

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David Shipley, the newspaper's opinion editor, disagreed with Telnaes' account.

"Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force," he said in a statement made available to DPA.

He said he decided against the cartoon because other columns addressed the same topic and wanted to avoid repetition.

The Washington Post was bought by multi-billionaire Bezos in 2013.

Bezos recently said he would not pursue personal interests through the medium, after criticism within the editorial team and among readers ahead of the US election over Bezos' decision not to publish an already written endorsement for Trump's opponent, Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris.