Donald Trump is once again at the forefront of a media frenzy. I’m not surprised, he has always seemed to enjoy the limelight.
Fulton County, Georgia will forever be my favorite area in the South because of the capture of this incredible photo by their sheriff’s office.
When Trump’s mugshot first appeared in my daily doom scroll on Instagram, I nearly
ruptured something from laughing so hard. I immediately dove into dozens of articles and videos about the fabulous photo.
The expression on his face is a perfect mixture of an Angry Bird and a basset hound.
The anger and droopiness that exudes from his facial features creates an unexpected but equally entertaining appearance.
The fluorescent lights don’t do him any favors either. His platinum blond hair and poorly spray-tanned skin makes the mugshot all the more laughable.
I can already imagine all of the t-shirts and hats made in dingy garages brandishing “Free Trump 2024” or “Justice is Served.”
The edits posted on TikTok and Instagram are enthralling in the worst way, and remind me of Tumblr-era fangirl edits and Facetune.
No matter the side of the political spectrum anyone falls on, I think everyone can agree that the mugshot was unexpected in a variety of ways.
Trump is the first of our long list of presidents to be criminally indicted. This means he is also our first former president to have such a stunning mugshot.
Trump is a trailblazer in his own way. It isn’t a trail I want to follow, but he created one nonetheless. There are 13 different charges in the most recent indictment against him. This is his fourth indictment of the year according to an Aug. 25 article from BBC.
The scandalous charges range from falsifying accounting records to cover up an alleged affair with a porn star, to attempting to manipulate votes in the 2020 election.
I don’t like Trump at all, but I respect his flair for the dramatics and his versatility when it comes to committing crimes. He’s too ostentatious for something simple like petty theft.
Some charges brought against Trump will likely result in him paying some fines, according to the same article.
While he might have to pay a few dimes, he still has the potential threat of jail time.
According to a Aug. 22 article from Forbes, Trump was indicted on 91 federal and state charges. These charges can amount to 717.5 years of prison time. This sentence is unlikely, knowing how our justice system works, but it is still a possibility no matter how slim.
If he were slammed with prison time, Trump would be the first president to be behind bars. Trump has yet another opportunity to blaze a trail no one wants to follow.
While we might not see Trump in a prison-orange outfit, the mugshot still satiates my appetite for ridiculous photos of politicians. It is a shame that we won’t see him clad in bright orange, the color suits him so well.
This is not the first presidential scandal, however. The American public has heard of affair after affair and cover-ups. Richard Nixon had the Watergate Scandal, and Ulysses S. Grant was arrested in 1872.
Grant was allegedly speeding through Washington D.C. in his horse-drawn carriage and was arrested in the midst of a race with his friends according to a 2023 Smithsonian Magazine article.
Grant was released with no charges or jail time which isn’t a surprise. He was the president, he could drive “Tokyo Drift” style down the streets with his horse if he wanted to.
Arresting the president for the 1870s equivalent of a street race is hilarious, but Trump still one-upped Grant with his almost 100 charges.
American politics have resembled a poorly written soap opera for over a century.
This soap opera continues as the election season approaches in the next year.
Trump’s mugshot doesn’t keep him from running for president. According to an Aug. 2 article from ABC7 Chicago, there is nothing that bars someone with a criminal record from running for president. While Trump has no criminal record yet, his potential candidacy will not be disqualified if he incurs one.
Trump wouldn’t be breaking precedent either if he were to run with a criminal record. According to the aforementioned BBC article, Eugene Debs ran for president in 1920 with the socialist party and received over 1 million votes while incarcerated.
Trump’s little limelight was stolen there, but I’m sure he’ll find a way to claw back into it.
While I didn’t enjoy waking up to Trump’s cheeto-inspired spray-tanned face plastered across every corner of my social media, I loved the dialogue it created.
Politics are polarizing, especially when it relates to our orangest former president. Somehow, this iconic mugshot didn’t create the aggressive discourse that I thought it would.
The online community was brought together in a way that Trump never managed to foster while he was in office.
I have never seen so many edits of Trump with drag makeup and as a Bratz doll, but I hope to see more in the next few days.
This mugshot might be the best press photo Trump will ever release.
