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.
鈥淚t will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time,鈥� 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. He鈥檚 wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, his shoulders squared, his head tilted slightly toward the camera. The sheriff鈥檚 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 he鈥檚 staring down a nemesis through the lens.
鈥淚t is not a comfortable feeling 鈥� especially when you鈥檝e done nothing wrong,鈥� he later Fox News 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 aren鈥檛 allowed.
This is different.
As Anderson Cooper put it on CNN: 鈥淭he former president of the United States has an inmate number.鈥� 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 person鈥檚 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.
鈥渀Indictment鈥� is a sort of bloodless word. And words are pale compared to images,鈥� said Kaplan, a former speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale and Hollywood screenwriter. 鈥淎 mug shot is a genre. Its frame is, `This is a deer caught in the headlights. This is the crook being nailed.鈥� It鈥檚 the walk of shame moment.鈥�
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 he鈥檚 been indicted.
And the imagery itself? Trump hasn鈥檛 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 鈥渘ot guilty.鈥� Dozens of similar designs are available to purchase online, including many that appeal to Trump鈥檚 critics.
Now they have a real one Within minutes of the mug shot鈥檚 release, Trump鈥檚 campaign used it in a fundraising appeal on its website. 鈥淏REAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE,鈥� reads the subject line of the campaign鈥檚 latest fundraising email, which advertises a new T-shirt with the image. And this quote: 鈥淭his mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of America鈥檚 defiance of tyranny.鈥�
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 sheriff鈥檚 logo in the top left corner to mimic the jail鈥檚 style 鈥� essentially her DIY mug. 鈥淚 stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis,鈥� 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. They鈥檝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 鈥� 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 鈥� that鈥檚 a potent moment.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a power to the still image, which is inarguable,鈥� 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.
鈥淚t kind of freezes a moment, and in this case it鈥檚 freezing an unhappy moment for Donald Trump,鈥� Stevens said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not something he can click away. It鈥檚 not something he can simply brush off. That moment is going to live on. And it鈥檚 entirely possible that it will end up as the image that history preserves of this man.鈥�
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Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
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