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.
B次元官网网址淚t will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time,B次元官网网址� 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. HeB次元官网网址檚 wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, his shoulders squared, his head tilted slightly toward the camera. The sheriffB次元官网网址檚 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 heB次元官网网址檚 staring down a nemesis through the lens.
B次元官网网址淚t is not a comfortable feeling B次元官网网址� especially when youB次元官网网址檝e done nothing wrong,B次元官网网址� he later Fox B次元官网网址 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 arenB次元官网网址檛 allowed.
This is different.
As Anderson Cooper put it on CNN: B次元官网网址淭he former president of the United States has an inmate number.B次元官网网址� 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 personB次元官网网址檚 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.
B次元官网网址渀IndictmentB次元官网网址� is a sort of bloodless word. And words are pale compared to images,B次元官网网址� said Kaplan, a former speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale and Hollywood screenwriter. B次元官网网址淎 mug shot is a genre. Its frame is, `This is a deer caught in the headlights. This is the crook being nailed.B次元官网网址� ItB次元官网网址檚 the walk of shame moment.B次元官网网址�
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 heB次元官网网址檚 been indicted.
And the imagery itself? Trump hasnB次元官网网址檛 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 B次元官网网址渘ot guilty.B次元官网网址� Dozens of similar designs are available to purchase online, including many that appeal to TrumpB次元官网网址檚 critics.
Now they have a real one Within minutes of the mug shotB次元官网网址檚 release, TrumpB次元官网网址檚 campaign used it in a fundraising appeal on its website. B次元官网网址淏REAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE,B次元官网网址� reads the subject line of the campaignB次元官网网址檚 latest fundraising email, which advertises a new T-shirt with the image. And this quote: B次元官网网址淭his mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of AmericaB次元官网网址檚 defiance of tyranny.B次元官网网址�
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 sheriffB次元官网网址檚 logo in the top left corner to mimic the jailB次元官网网址檚 style B次元官网网址� essentially her DIY mug. B次元官网网址淚 stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis,B次元官网网址� 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. TheyB次元官网网址檝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 B次元官网网址� 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 B次元官网网址� thatB次元官网网址檚 a potent moment.
B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 a power to the still image, which is inarguable,B次元官网网址� 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.
B次元官网网址淚t kind of freezes a moment, and in this case itB次元官网网址檚 freezing an unhappy moment for Donald Trump,B次元官网网址� Stevens said. B次元官网网址淎nd itB次元官网网址檚 not something he can click away. ItB次元官网网址檚 not something he can simply brush off. That moment is going to live on. And itB次元官网网址檚 entirely possible that it will end up as the image that history preserves of this man.B次元官网网址�
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Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
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