The ‘Scowling’ Donald Trump Mugshot: One Picture, One Face, One American Moment

A camera snaps. The shutter opens for a split second before closing, freezing the picture in front of it.

A little inflection moment in American society was both made and recorded on Thursday when the camera shutter flashed inside a prison in downtown Atlanta. For the first time in history, a former president of the United States was photographed while being arrested and in a frame that is often used to photograph drug traffickers or drunk drivers. For that little moment, the accoutrements of authority were gone.

Left behind: a memorable picture that will live on long after Donald Trump has passed away.

Marty Kaplan, a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications, said that it “will forever be part of the iconography of being alive in this time.”

In the image, Trump glares intently into the camera as he stands in front of a dull gray background. He has straight shoulders and a head angled slightly in the direction of the camera while wearing a blue suit, a white shirt, and a red tie. Above his right shoulder, the sheriff’s emblem has been digitally placed.

In their arrest photographs, several of the 18 people indicted with him in Georgia grinned as if they were posing for a yearbook. Trump not. His defiance is apparent, as if he were looking through the camera at a foe.

UNIQUE FROM ALL OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS

Americans who seen Trump appear before a judge in a New York courtroom or who saw watercolor renderings of him from inside federal courthouses in Miami and Washington, where cameras are not permitted, are already used to seeing Trump face charges in 2023.

This is unique.

According to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “The former president of the United States has an inmate number.” To be precise, P01135809. However, unlike the millions of others convicted of crimes before him, he avoided having to stand for the famous booking picture until he turned himself in to Georgia authorities to face allegations of attempting to rig the 2020 election. This is his fourth indictment this year.

Despite the fact that Trump, like all Americans, is presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty in court, the mug image and all it implies have added emotional and cultural impact.

A mug photo is a sign of lost freedom and a visceral image of the criminal justice system. It serves as a lifelong reminder of one of the worst days in someone’s life—a time not appropriate for a scrapbook. Being born into luxury, having a reputation for enjoying being in charge, being very conscious of his image, and rising to become the most powerful person in the world must make it very strange to him.

“The term “indictment” is kind of a bloodless word. Words are insignificant in comparison to visuals, according to Kaplan, a Hollywood screenwriter and former speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale. “The genre of the mug photo. This is a deer caught in the headlights, reads the frame. The criminal is getting nabbed here. It’s time for the walk of shame.

He is already seizing the opportunity.

Trump is running for re-election while defending himself against criminal allegations in four different states, so he is unlikely to see the mug photo as a source of embarrassment. Each time he has been charged, his campaign has seen a rise in donations.

and the actual imagery? Trump hasn’t been hesitant to bring it up. In fact, his campaign created one before it materialized.

His campaign raised money months in advance of being captured in a mug shot on Thursday night in Georgia by using the possibility of such a picture as leverage. Anyone may purchase a T-shirt for $36 that has a bogus booking picture of Trump and the phrase “not guilty.” There are dozens of such designs for sale online, many of which will appeal to Trump’s detractors.

They may now work with a genuine one. The mug image was utilized by Trump’s campaign in a website fundraising appeal minutes after it was made public. The subject line of the campaign’s most recent fundraising email, which promotes a new T-shirt featuring the picture, says, “BREAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE.” And this statement: “This mugshot will forever stand as a testament to America’s resistance to tyranny.”

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene uploaded a picture of herself smiling widely on a gray backdrop with the sheriff’s insignia in the upper left corner to replicate the appearance of the jail on X, the platform that replaced Twitter, as a gesture of support. This photo was effectively her own mug. She attacked the Georgia district attorney who convinced a grand jury to charge Trump, calling her “the commie DA Fani Willis,” saying, “I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis.”

Politicians have a long history of using their booking images to further their political careers. They’ve attempted to make the most of their situation by flashing broad grins or rebellious smirks.

However, he is one of only 45 presidents in American history, and he served in a position that today, both at home and abroad, for many, personifies the country for those who live there. He also held the keys to the most powerful government in the world. It is a powerful moment to see his face staring into a camera that he is not actively searching for.

Mitchell Stevens, a professor emeritus at New York University who has authored a book on the role picture bears in contemporary culture and how it is replacing the word, said that “there is a power to the still image, which is undeniable.”

According to Stevens, “it kind of freezes a moment, and in this case, it’s freezing a miserable moment for Donald Trump.” And he cannot just click it away. It isn’t something he can just ignore. The memory of that moment will endure. And it’s completely feasible that it will become the representation of this individual that history records.