At that Fulton County jail, Donald J. Trump, at six feet tall and 215 pounds, became a new anti-establishment figure.
His mugshot is Warhol’s stuff: an instant iconic Americana that will be reproduced and reused for decades to come.
Right now, his enemies have given him the greatest gift imaginable.
This image has turned a multi-billionaire former president into a folk hero, a renegade, and a bandit.
And America loves nothing more than an outlaw, as Trump well knows.
Within hours, he was selling official merchandise with the image stamped on it: mugshot coffee mugs ($25), beer mugs ($15 for a set of 2), t-shirts ($34), and bumper stickers ($12 for a set of 2). , all emblazoned with the slogans ‘Never Surrender.’
Guess what we’re getting in our stockings this Christmas? These tchotchkes make great gifts for the Trump lover and even better gag gifts for the Trump hater.
First US president to submit to mugshot? Be careful what you wish for.
Laughing at this mugshot is misunderstanding it. Georgia just crystallized Trump’s campaign message with a copyright-free image that will earn him the nomination.
Fani Willis, Georgia’s district attorney, has certainly been feeling pretty smug for the past two weeks. We’ve all seen her smug press conference announcing the Trump impeachment.
But the mugshot — wholly unnecessary, avoided in Trump’s three other indictments, and designed to humiliate and degrade — has opened up a whole new revenue stream and reinvigorated Trump’s already fanatical base.
Like the Fulton County explanation.
His mugshot is Warhol’s stuff: an instant iconic Americana that will be reproduced and reused for decades to come.
Within hours, he was selling official merchandise with the image stamped on it: mugshot coffee mugs ($25), beer mugs ($15 for a set of 2), t-shirts ($34), and bumper stickers ($12 for a set of 2). , all emblazoned with the slogans ‘Never Surrender.’
“Unless someone tells me otherwise,” said Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat in early August, “we’re following our normal practices…it doesn’t matter what your status is. We’ve got a mug shot ready for you.’
Please. No one believes that this mugshot is not politically motivated. Donald Trump is one of the most photographed people in the world. It’s not like he’s out on bail.
It is truly astonishing: those who hate Trump, who have come to know him intimately, still do not understand him!
By Friday morning, hours after the arraignment, talking heads on CNN bemoaned reports that Trump and his team had been thinking about the optics of the mugshot — what his expression should convey, his demeanor, what colors he should wear.
Of course they did. They would be foolish not to. Dressed in red, white and blue, Trump faces the camera with his chin down yet unbowed, his face an expression of pure rage.
It’s perfect. It conveys everything Trump clearly wants: he is a patriot, a political martyr. He will not accept this, and America should not. This is a mockery that Trump will avenge.
Try to destroy him and he will only come out stronger.
Those here rejoicing at Trump’s indictment — and I am one of them — should lament this mugshot. It elevates Trump beyond politics into the realm of pure pop culture. It’s the apotheosis of his reality TV approach of campaigning, arguing, saying the most outrageous things imaginable and somehow, even when it looks like he’s losing, another rabbit pull out of his hat.
Indicted on RICO charges? There’s a new Teflon Don in town.
This image has turned a multi-billionaire former president into a folk hero, a renegade, and a bandit. And America loves nothing more than an outlaw, as Trump well knows.
“Unless someone tells me otherwise,” said Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat (above) in early August, “we are following our normal practices…it doesn’t matter what your status is. We’ve got a mug shot ready for you.’
Trump isn’t just getting the lure of transgressive behavior; he is the ultimate cross-border. “Grab them by the hand,” “I like people who haven’t been captured,” “Very nice people on both sides”—nothing brings Trump down. Neither does this mug shot.
This is where the left goes wrong all the time. They think Trump isn’t serious, isn’t crafty, isn’t smart.
Oh, but he does. Trump is a fighter in Brioni, the ultimate professional wrestler of politics, a deft adaptation to a post-TV era. He sits down with fellow insider-turned-outsider Tucker Carlson for a fireside chat — minus the fire — on Elon Musk’s X, counterprogramming the first GOP presidential debate on Fox and correctly predicting the end result.
“We’ll get bigger ratings if we use this crazy forum that you use,” Trump told Carlson, “than probably the debate, our competition.”
Fox had 12.8 million viewers. Compare that to the Trump-Tucker interview, which garnered nearly 200 million attention.
Slippery as that metric may be — X only counts a few seconds of streaming as a “view” — Trump knew what the headline would be: He punched Fox.
It was. And nothing the participating Republican candidates did or said in that official debate dominated the next day’s news cycle, as Trump slyly decided to report for arraignment that very day — 24 hours before his deadline.
That decision sucked up all that post-debate oxygen as network and cable news reported breathlessly from Georgia — all day — until Trump showed up a little after 7 p.m. He was expected to report at 4 p.m.
Trump isn’t just getting the lure of transgressive behavior; he is the ultimate cross-border. “Grab them by the hand,” “I like people who haven’t been captured,” “Very nice people on both sides”—nothing brings Trump down. Neither does this mug shot.
Trump is a fighter in Brioni, the ultimate professional wrestler of politics, a deft adaptation to a post-TV era.
Nothing is an accident.
We, our children and our children’s children will see that mugshot reinterpreted on museum walls, on posters in dorm rooms, on T-shirts that make him an anti-hero until the end of time. It’s as iconic as Jackie Kennedy in her bunker hat, Muhammad Ali in the ring, Elvis in the White House.
There’s a reason why some celebrities, including the late Prince, have faked their own arrests and police photos. A famous face stripped of all dignity becomes the literal representation not only of persecution, but also of persecution.
And that plays right into Trump’s base, whose passion for him is religious. But unlike Jesus Christ, this former world leader will not turn the other cheek. He will fight back — not for himself, Trump says, but for his followers.
As he told a crowd after his first two indictments in late June, “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wrong and betrayed, I am your retribution. . . I consider it a great sign of courage. I’m being sued for you.’
Trump doubled down on Thursday after his Georgia arraignment.
“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” he said. “We didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t do anything wrong, and everyone knows it. I’ve never had so much support.’
Underestimate him at your peril, Georgia prosecutors. Enjoy your momentary glee for now, left-wing media. Because this mugshot and the ensuing trial — which will no doubt be televised and save an entertainment industry crippled by two ongoing strikes — will be in Trump’s favour.
Largely.