Inside Donald Trump’s master strategy to turn police mugshot into electoral gold
GLOWERING beneath angry eyebrows like a shackled bulldog, Donald Trump looks ready to headbutt the camera.
His carefully-curated scowl — a simmering, self-righteous glare of defiance — is already an iconic, era-defining image.
Police mugshots usually end political careers. Trump is using his as a campaign motif for the 2024 presidency.
Within minutes of the photo being released, it was plastered on Trump’s website, with the ex-president insisting: “What has taken place is a travesty of justice.”
This being America, it was also a gilded opportunity to make a quick buck.
Soon, unisex T-shirts bearing the mugshot were being hawked on Trump’s campaign website for £27, coffee mugs at £20 and bumper stickers at £10 for two.
Trump — author of The Art Of The Deal — also tweeted out the image and appealed for donations.
It was his first tweet since being banned from the platform — now known as X — after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.
Under the mugshot, Trump wrote in capitals: “ELECTION INTERFERENCE! NEVER SURRENDER!”
Viewed 130million times in 12 hours, the photograph has mesmerised, and divided, America.
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And Trump rinsed the image for all the political capital he could get.
A fundraising email said: “This mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of America’s defiance of tyranny.”
He even made sure his arrest played out bang in the middle of US prime time.
At 7.33pm on Thursday, Trump — who has 18 alleged co-conspirators, including ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani — had surrendered to authorities at the notorious Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia.
Viewers were gripped as his cavalcade of 19 motorcycle outriders and around a dozen black SUVs snaked into the prison precincts.
Watching outside the jail razor wire, satirical writer Stan Simberg, 71, said: “Everyone else would be slinking in at 3.30 in the morning with a bag over their head.
“He announces he’s coming down during primetime. He wants the exposure!”
‘Defiance of tyranny’
Trump was then arrested on 13 counts relating to an alleged attempt to overthrow the 2020 election in Georgia.
In a January 2021 phone call, it’s claimed he pressured Georgia’s top election official to “find 11,780 votes” in a ballot count.
He denies all charges.
Trump fan Crystal Myers-Barber, 51, from California, said: “It makes me very sad to see this. I do believe it will help his ratings and backfire, though!”
Democrat Anna Bosking, 21, from Virginia, told the BBC: “It is an international embarrassment that the man we put in the world stage is an alleged criminal.”
The 45th president of the USA was booked as inmate number P01135809.
The McDonald’s and pizza-loving 77-year-old told cops his weight was 15st 4lb.
If he wasn’t telling porkies, it means he has shed just over 2st since he was arrested on other charges in April.
His historic mugshot saw him posed against a plain grey backdrop, staring straight down the barrel of the camera.
Trump’s famously orange complexion seemed dulled but his hair appeared blonder and his eyes a deeper blue.
Recently, he complained Fox News had been using unflattering photos of him, writing on his Truth Social platform: “They purposely show the absolutely worst pictures, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back.”
This time, in a brooding pose, he made sure his chin was well tucked in to eliminate any risk of the dreaded turkey neck.
Trump’s bail was set at $200,000 (£160,000) and, after just 22 minutes, he was released from prison pending trial.
An hour later and the first mugshot of a US president went public.
Depending on your political affiliations, Trump either resembled a solemn yet defiant martyr or had the transfixed glare of a mobster.
His former national security adviser, John Bolton, told CNN: “He could’ve smiled. He could’ve looked benign. Instead he looks like a thug.” Bolton believes it was “a sign of intimidation” against “the prosecutors and the judges”.
Trump-supporting Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted the mugshot with the caption: “Not all heroes wear capes.”
Campaign dream
And social media was in a frenzy. Internet memes included the image alongside one of ex-president Barack Obama holding a camera, captioned: “Smile, bitch.”
Another showed Ben Stiller in the movie Zoolander with puckered lips and sucked in cheeks alongside the Trump pose.
The Georgia indictment is the fourth Trump has faced this year — but the first in which a mugshot was snapped.
Each time he was booked his ratings soared.
He now seems unassailable in the race to be Joe Biden’s Republican challenger in 2024.
Trump is polling at around 52 per cent while his nearest rival Ron DeSantis is trailing on 15 per cent.
Just three weeks ago, a poll put him neck and neck with Joe Biden in the race for the White House.
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The former Apprentice star will believe his mugshot was a campaign dream which could once more propel him to the US presidency.
Even if he has to run the nation from a jail cell and not the Oval Office.
