A camera clicks. In a fraction of a second, the shutter opens and then closes, freezing forever the image in front of it.
When the inside an Atlanta jail on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second.
Left behind: an enduring image that will appear in history books long after Donald Trump is gone.
91裸聊视频淚t will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time,91裸聊视频� said Marty Kaplan, a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications.
In the photo, Trump confronts the camera in front of a bland gray backdrop, his eyes meeting the lens in an intense glare. He91裸聊视频檚 wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, his shoulders squared, his head tilted slightly toward the camera. The sheriff91裸聊视频檚 logo has been digitally added above his right shoulder.
Some of the 18 others charged with him in Georgia smiled in their booking photos like they were posing for a yearbook. Not Trump. His defiance is palpable, as if he91裸聊视频檚 staring down a nemesis through the lens.
91裸聊视频淚t is not a comfortable feeling 91裸聊视频� especially when you91裸聊视频檝e done nothing wrong,91裸聊视频� he later Fox News Digital about the moment.
NOT LIKE ANY OTHER PHOTOGRAPH
Trump facing charges is by now a familiar sight of 2023 to Americans who watched him stand before a judge in a New York courtroom or saw watercolor sketches from the inside of federal courthouses in Miami and Washington, where cameras aren91裸聊视频檛 allowed.
This is different.
As Anderson Cooper put it on CNN: 91裸聊视频淭he former president of the United States has an inmate number.91裸聊视频� P01135809, to be exact. But until he surrendered to face charges of trying to steal the 2020 election in Georgia, his fourth indictment this year, he avoided having to pose for the iconic booking photo like millions accused of crimes before him.
Never mind that Trump, like all Americans, is innocent until proven guilty in court; the mug shot, and all it connotes, packs an extra emotional and cultural punch.
A mug shot is a visceral representation of the criminal justice system, a symbol of lost freedom. It permanently memorializes one of the worst days of a person91裸聊视频檚 life, a moment not meant for a scrapbook. It must be particularly foreign to a man born into privilege, who famously loves to be in control, who is highly attentive to his image and who rose to be the most powerful figure in the world.
91裸聊视频渀Indictment91裸聊视频� is a sort of bloodless word. And words are pale compared to images,91裸聊视频� said Kaplan, a former speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale and Hollywood screenwriter. 91裸聊视频淎 mug shot is a genre. Its frame is, `This is a deer caught in the headlights. This is the crook being nailed.91裸聊视频� It91裸聊视频檚 the walk of shame moment.91裸聊视频�
HE IS ALREADY LEVERAGING THE MOMENT
Trump is unlikely to treat the mug shot as a moment of shame as he seeks a second term in the White House while fighting criminal charges in four jurisdictions. His campaign has reported a spike in contributions each time he91裸聊视频檚 been indicted.
And the imagery itself? Trump hasn91裸聊视频檛 shied away from it. In fact, his campaign concocted one long before it became real.
Months before he was photographed in Georgia on Thursday evening, his campaign used the prospect of a mug shot as a fundraising opportunity. For $36, anyone can buy a T-shirt with a fake booking photo of Trump and the words 91裸聊视频渘ot guilty.91裸聊视频� Dozens of similar designs are available to purchase online, including many that appeal to Trump91裸聊视频檚 critics.
Now they have a real one Within minutes of the mug shot91裸聊视频檚 release, Trump91裸聊视频檚 campaign used it in a fundraising appeal on its website. 91裸聊视频淏REAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE,91裸聊视频� reads the subject line of the campaign91裸聊视频檚 latest fundraising email, which advertises a new T-shirt with the image. And this quote: 91裸聊视频淭his mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of America91裸聊视频檚 defiance of tyranny.91裸聊视频�
In a show of solidarity, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, smiling broadly in front of a gray background, the sheriff91裸聊视频檚 logo in the top left corner to mimic the jail91裸聊视频檚 style 91裸聊视频� essentially her DIY mug. 91裸聊视频淚 stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis,91裸聊视频� she said, a swipe at the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who persuaded a grand jury to indict Trump.
Recent history is full of politicians from their booking photos. They91裸聊视频檝e offered large smiles or defiant smirks and tried to make the best of their predicament.
Yet this is one of just 45 presidents in all of U.S. history 91裸聊视频� not only someone who held the keys to the most powerful government in the world, but who held a position that for many these days, both at home and overseas, personifies the United States. To see that face looking at a camera whose lens he is not seeking out 91裸聊视频� that91裸聊视频檚 a potent moment.
91裸聊视频淭here91裸聊视频檚 a power to the still image, which is inarguable,91裸聊视频� said Mitchell Stevens, a professor emeritus at New York University who has written a book about the place imagery holds in modern society and how it is supplanting the word.
91裸聊视频淚t kind of freezes a moment, and in this case it91裸聊视频檚 freezing an unhappy moment for Donald Trump,91裸聊视频� Stevens said. 91裸聊视频淎nd it91裸聊视频檚 not something he can click away. It91裸聊视频檚 not something he can simply brush off. That moment is going to live on. And it91裸聊视频檚 entirely possible that it will end up as the image that history preserves of this man.91裸聊视频�
___
Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
Like us on and follow us on .
