The fact that Donald Trump is in the dock has almost become normal in the USA. But having an ex-president appear in jail and pose for a mugshot stands out even in these times.
Donald Trump scowls at the camera. Eyes straight ahead, lips pressed together, brow furrowed. The ex-US President looks almost like a movie villain. Trump wears his usual dark blue jacket, white shirt and red tie. Only one thing is different than usual: next to Trump’s blond hair, the emblem of a sheriff’s office in Atlanta is emblazoned in the top left of the picture. It is the historically unique Mughshot mugshot of the once most powerful man in the world – taken in the notorious Fulton County Jail.
The Republican presidential candidate had to present himself to the authorities there on Thursday evening (local time) after charges against him related to attempted election fraud. Shortly after leaving prison, the 77-year-old used the memorable mugshot to return to successor platform X, more than two and a half years after his last Twitter post. There he posted the picture without a police emblem, but with the slogan: “Never give up!”
Donald Trump is the first US President to wear a Mughsot
Trump had already used the previous charges against him for campaign purposes to mobilize his base and raise funds. With success. The unprecedented mugshot from Atlanta now offers him the martyr image to portray the prosecution against him as nothing more than an attempt by his political opponents to prevent him from running for a second term.
Trump is the first ex-President of the United States to face impeachment. Not once, but four times. Trump is now the first ex-president to appear in prison and have a police photo taken. In the three other cases in New York, Miami and Washington in which the Republican was charged, the authorities had refrained from such an image. The photo from Atlanta should now go down in history.
In the Georgia capital, Trump is charged with 18 other suspects over his attempts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the state. The prosecutor’s office had given the Republican and the other defendants until this Friday to report voluntarily to the law enforcement authorities in Atlanta. Trump complied on Thursday evening. However, unlike those in the other criminal proceedings, the authorities in Atlanta did not grant him any exemptions.
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With a large entourage, Trump appeared in the district jail in Atlanta, endured the formalities and the photo. About 20 minutes later, his motorcade left the prison grounds. Shortly thereafter, Trump left Atlanta on his private plane – but not without complaining bitterly about the prosecution against him before boarding the machine.
The Fulton County jail in Atlanta, where Trump had to appear, is not just any place. The prison is notorious. The US Department of Justice launched an investigation into prison conditions there in July after a prisoner died in a cell covered in lice and dirt and other dramatic reports from inside the prison leaked to the public: of excess violence, guns circulating en masse, ominous deaths and deterioration of the building.
The fact that the 45th President of the United States had to appear at this exact spot in order to have his personal details taken after an indictment already has a new quality in terms of external impact. This is all the more true for the police photo. It is the preliminary climax in an unprecedented series of charges against the former top man in the state. And also a hint for the 77-year-old what he could possibly face.
Trump uses police photo for spectacular return
Trump likes to pose like in the police photo – wants to look determined, powerful, unyielding. He doesn’t like looking weak. It is his way of converting an actually precarious legal situation and exploiting it politically for himself. The fact that he chooses this picture as an occasion to report back to Twitter successor X with a bang fits into his pattern.
Towards the end of his term in office, Trump was blocked from major online platforms after his supporters stormed the seat of Parliament in Washington on January 6, 2021 – precisely because of his campaign against the outcome of the 2020 election, which also brought him indictment in Georgia. Before the unprecedented outbreak of violence, Trump had goaded his supporters with the unfounded claim that he had been cheated out of the 2020 presidential election. In his online messages before and after the Capitol attack, he openly showed sympathy for the rioters. The platform operators therefore feared that there could be new violence if Trump were not banned – and blocked his accounts.
Trump has since regained access to all major online services, where he still has millions of followers. He reported back on several channels. However, he had remained silent on the Twitter platform, which was recently renamed X – until now.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
