A history was scripted when former US President Donald Trump's mug shot was clicked at Fulton County Jail at Atlanta in Georgia on Thursday. With a scowl on his face, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, gave a "defiant look", reportedly carefully crafted to send across a message.
Team Trump had discussed the mug shot prior to his surrender at Atlanta and the former President wanted to appear "defiant" and purposefully chose not to smile, sources told CNN. As per the jail record, Trump, who has inmate number No. P01135809, is "6 foot 3 inches tall and weighs 215 pounds." He is listed as having blue eyes and blonde or strawberry hair.
For a section of American society, this mug shot may represent the strength of the justice system and a possible culmination of the former President's political life - he has 91 criminal charges across four cases.
But, not Trump. Immediately after the mug shot was released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Trump returned to the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, with a post showing his mug shot captioned "ELECTION INTERFERENCE! NEVER SURRENDER!" The post garnered more than 14 million views 50 minutes after going live.
He also added a link to his 2024 campaign website in the tweet. The message on the landing page of the site read: "Today, at the notoriously violent jail in Fulton County, Georgia, I was ARRESTED despite having committed NO CRIME".
"Today, I walked into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I WILL NEVER SURRENDER OUR MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA."
This also marked Trump's return to the social media platform which suspended his account in January 2021, citing the risk of further incitement of violence following the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Soon after, the merchandise with the former president’s historic mug shot began to appear on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign site. The products include T-shirts and long sleeve shirts for $34, a $25 coffee mug and $15 beer Koozies.
His campaign has also reported an increase in contributions.
If anything, Trump's campaign had already been preparing for the mug shot. They had explored the prospect of using the mug shot as a fundraising opportunity months ago, with a T-shirt with a fake booking photo of Trump and the words "not guilty" being already sold.
Sean Wilentz, a professor of American history at Princeton University, said the event is dramatically unprecedented. "Of all the millions, maybe billions of photos taken of Donald Trump, this could stand as the most famous. Or notorious." It is possible that in the future, the mug shot will seem the ultimate bookend to a political arc in the United States that began decades ago, with Richard Nixon’s "I am not a crook," Wilentz told The New York Times.
