Trump's mug shot fuels liberal delight and GOP fundraising — and becomes an instant American political relic
From the moment it was snapped in the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, Donald Trump's mug shot secured a place as an artifact of American history.
ATLANTA — From the moment it was snapped in the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, Donald Trump's mug shot secured a place as an artifact of American history — a defiant-looking man, once one of the most powerful on Earth, now glowering in a red tie and a blue suit before a drab backdrop and under the stark glow of a flashbulb.
The booking photo ricocheted across the internet, sliding into text messages, bursting across social media and appearing on fundraising appeals and T-shirts and across news sites and cable networks. One Trump adviser joked that he might buy a T-shirt company.
Trump's opponents seized with delight: There, after all the years of accusations he was a criminal and only on the fourth arrest, was proof of his prosecution in the form of a watermarked booking picture. The image is sure to fuel campaign fodder for elections to come and be reprised by Democrats who will argue it is evidence that Trump is unfit to hold office.
But there may have been no more delight than among the former president's allies — who quickly saw the picture not as a liability but as an asset, the kind of rallying cry that will help Trump lock up his party's support and recapture the White House.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican consultant, said the booking photo was unnecessary — Trump is one of the most photographed and recognizable people in the world — and warned it ultimately could work against those who seemed to be delighting at seeing it.
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