Everyone’s mocking Donald Trump’s mugshot after his arrest for election interference
Donald Trump’s trial date has been set eight months ahead of the 2024 US presidential election. (Fulton County Jail).
The world has reacted to Donald Trump’s mugshot after he became the first former president in US history to have one taken.
His supporters have praised the former reality TV personality, but a lot of people have also found his mugshot very funny indeed.
Trump, who served one term as the 45th president of the United States, surrendered to Georgia police on more than a dozen racketeering and conspiracy charges over attempts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
Following Fulton County Jail releasing the GOP candidate’s mugshot online, the floodgates immediately opened as social media users ridiculed him and his strange, pursed-lipped appearance in the image.
Users mocked his seeming attempt at a stern-looking face, with one user saying it was representative of “the downfall montage of a Martin Scorsese film”.
“Me looking at myself in the mirror at 2am after four drinks trying to figure out if I’m real or not,” another wrote.
After being released on a $200,000 bail bond – the highest of any of his co-defendants – Trump quickly attempted to capitalise on the mugshot while taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time since being reinstated on the website.
In a post on Friday (25 August), Trump shared his mugshot alongside the phrases “election interference” and “never surrender” in full capitals, with a link to his website where he is currently asking for donations to his spurious “election interference” fund.
He is also selling merchandise with the mugshot printed on, including t-shirts, jumpers and mugs.
After leaving the Atlanta prison, Donald Trump gave a brief statement to members of the press, saying he believed there to be a “travesty of justice,” claiming: “We did nothing wrong at all.”
Speaking with right-wing US news outlet Newsmax after his release, he described the experience as “terrible” and also claimed he had never even heard the word “mugshot” before having his taken.
“I was treated very nicely, but it is what it is,” he said.
“I took a mugshot – which I never heard the word ‘mugshot’ before. They didn’t teach me that at the Wharton School of Finance.”
He also repeated his claim, again, that there had been “election interference” which prevented him serving a second term in office, despite all evidence and investigations proving time and time again that this was not the case.
Several charges in his 41-count indictment include a conspiracy to defraud the US, a conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and the obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Mugshots of some of Trump’s co-defendants were also shared online, but attracted much less attention than the former president’s.
Despite ridicule from across the internet, supporters of Trump still attempted to use the mugshot as a way to push his 2024 election campaign.
Right-wing pundit Laura Loomer called Trump an “American hero” in a post saying she was planning to buy one of his mugshot coffee mugs.
Meanwhile, the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., pushed the “deep state” conspiracy theory, saying: “He’s coming for you.”
“See you on January 20 2025,” he continued, seemingly threatening another Capitol insurrection similar to the riot on 20 January 2021, which resulted in five deaths and many more injuries.
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