Donald Trump’s mug shot is going to be his most enduring meme
The Murmur of the Defendant of the Georgia District Attorney in the Era of Trump’s Supermajority and Election Campaign
The booking photo of Trump was plastered on T-shirts, mugs and koozies hours after it was made public. The newest addition to Trump’s campaign was inspired by it. And it even triggered a viral social media challenge where Trump supporters superimposed their face onto his photo.
Alone, the photograph is nothing to call home about. He set the bar pretty high during his presidency, so it would barely register as remarkable if it was not infused with so much meaning. Remember the orb?!). But its aesthetics are classic Trump. The furrowed brows. The chromatic cloud of hair. That unyielding glare, his eyes like darts, in search of a target. The camera struggles to capture proper light, but that feels fitting: his darkness is in full view.
“There’s nothing like the scale of what’s going on — a politician of Trump’s stature who’s using the scandal to such political benefit,” said William Howell, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.
That, more than anything, is what the mug shot makes plain. The mug shot of the Georgia district attorney implies that she is a criminal. Some will call that implication into question. They’ll say it’s unfair. They’ll again label it a witch hunt. For others, it validates what they already believe to be true: In his loss to President Joe Biden, he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and now he must go on trial to prove otherwise. Trump and his co-defendants will be in court next week. The court of public opinion will be watching.
For most people, mug shots are taken during one of the worst days of their lives. Unless someone pays to take them down, those images will remain on the internet forever.
Arrest images are also used disproportionately by race. Black defendants have mug shots used in 45% of cases, and white defendants only have mug shots used in 8% of cases.
The Mug Shots are a Bad Badge of Honour for Rick Perry, a former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his supporters
“Folks without power, they’re criminalized. They don’t have much say about it. “But the people who have a lot of power, they can change that picture,” she said.
Officials have a lot of power and resources that are immune to mug shots. Take former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. After he was accused of abusing his power as governor, the man was arrested and photographed in jail. His super PAC sold T-shirts with his mug shot for $25 after the incident turned into a political rally.
“Politicians know it’s not about the picture, it’s about the moment.” There is a possibility that the meaning of the moment can be changed to suit one’s needs.
Trump has long portrayed himself as an anti-hero, willing to call out the failures and corruption in Washington. To him and some of his supporters, the indictments and mug shot underscore their belief that he has been treated unfairly, according to Howell.
The narrative he’s spinning now is that the justice system has been corrupted by his political opponent and that the government has been hijacked by people who don’t believe in the rule of law.
Source: Mug shots are usually harmful. For Trump and his supporters, it’s a badge of honor
The Trump Mugshot: What Has It Meant? And Why Did He Publish It? The Case of Marjorie Taylor Greene
That’s why Howell anticipates Trump’s mug shot may help him during his presidential race — at least financially. In fact, his campaign has already made money selling merchandise with a fake Trump mug shot.
On Thursday, Trump posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in more than two years to share his mugshot along with the words “NEVER SURRENDER.”
Shortly after, some of his supporters followed suit and posted fake mug shots with their own faces on the social media site. Among those who participated was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“This is more than just that they’re going to help him in the fires. He said that the fires were only going to strengthen the bonds between them.
He is defined through a series of clips, photos, and sound bites in media and online. The story of Donald Trump is a story of pictures: brash and erratic, unfading and unpredictable. The mug shot of the Republican contender is a picture that requires interrogation. We should not look away, and this time, Trump should not be allowed to so easily evade the lens of reality.
The latest transmission from his visual onslaught began making rounds on the internet last Thursday, just past the 8pm Eastern primetime hour, when Georgia’s Fulton County Jail released his mug shot to the public. It has since been described as one of the most historic images of our time. And so was also rightly so. There is no parallel for it in our visual lexicon. It is, in every sense of the phrase, a Trump original.
US President Donald Trump’s supporters have been using his mug shot to sell T-shirts, mugs, and other items on social media after it was made public. Trump’s supporters have made money selling merchandise with a fake Trump mug shot. Some of his supporters also posted their own faces on the social media site.