Trump's "menacing" mug shot could elevate his 2024 presidential campaign which is already far ahead of other GOP candidates

By arseniotoledo // 2023-08-28

Mastodon

Parler

Gab

Copy

Megan Garber, a staff writer for the Atlantic, warned in an opinion piece that former President Donald Trump's mug shot is actually increasing his popularity and could help propel him back into the White House in the 2024 elections. Trump became the first president in the history of the United States to ever have his mug shot taken when he got booked on Thursday, August 24, at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia over 13 felony charges of racketeering and conspiracy related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. (Related: The photo that will win Trump the 2024 presidency.) In her article, Garber wrote that mug shot photos are "supposed to be an exercise in humility." She wrote: "In the portrait – it is a portrait, in the end – Trump glares directly into the camera. He seethes. He glowers. He turns in a studied performance. Photos like this are typically exercises in enforced humility. Trump's is a display of ongoing power. He treats his mug shot as our menace." Garber continued by pointing out that this event, which should have been "a show of accountability" instead was turned on its head when Trump made "an act of concession to him" when the former president did not look like how "typical" alleged criminals should look like when they get their mug shots taken. "The typical mug shot … bestows its power on the people on the other end of the camera. The alleged criminal, in it, tends to be disheveled, displaced, small," wrote Garber. "But Trump, trailed by the news cameras that confer his ubiquity, found a way to turn the moment's historical meaning – a former president, mug-shotted – into one more opportunity for brand building."

Trump has turned his mug shot into a campaign symbol

Proving Garber's point, Trump himself helped spread the photo when, for the first time in over two years, the former president took to Twitter to post his photo along with the caption: "ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and "NEVER SURRENDER!" In a matter of hours after the release of Trump's mug shot, it has also turned into a campaign symbol, with the photo immediately being sold printed on t-shirts, stickers, posters, mugs, shot glasses and even on bobblehead dolls. "Mug shots have destroyed other political careers. For him, it has already become a campaign symbol," wrote Sarah Smith, the North America editor for BBC. "It is yet another example of how Mr. Trump continues to defy political gravity." Trump's own Save America political action committee has already started selling mug shot t-shirts, beverage holders and coffee mugs. Trump's son, Donald Trump, Jr., is marketing mug shot t-shirts and posters. Proceeds from both sales are intended to pay for the former president's ongoing campaign. This shows how successfully Trump has leveraged the ongoing criminal probes against him to rally support to his base, beginning several months ago with his first indictment in New York. Daily online donations to Trump's PACs see massive surges whenever he is indicted, one time nearly breaching the $4 million mark in one day following his arraignment in April. Learn more about the political persecution of Trump at Trump.news. Watch this episode of "Brighteon Broadcast News" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, discusses Trump's indictment and his defiance against tyranny. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

CITIZENS NEWS

Trump has turned his mug shot into a campaign symbol

More related stories: