Former US President Donald Trump and his supporters rushed to release the mug shot of him on Thursday, August 24. This photo would have been a political death sentence for any other personality, but Donald Trump is a political animal as transgressive as he is unique. And he proves it again.
A photo for posterity. On Thursday, August 24, Donald Trump was quick to spread as widely as possible the photo of his mugshot taken when he went to the police station as part of the investigation into suspicions of manipulation of the results of the 2020 elections in the state. Georgian Key…
It is the first time that a former US president – who is also a possible candidate for the 2024 presidential elections – has taken a photograph of this type.
Without a hint of a smile on his lips, with his brows knitted and his eyes halfway between anger and defiance, this photo of the 45th president of the United States “will undoubtedly go down in the history books”, according to all the experts in US politician interviewed by France 24.
Sales pitch to raise funds
It’s enough to feed the ego of a man who likes to stress that he’s the first to do anything at every opportunity. But it was not (only) out of vanity that Donald Trump posted this portrait on X (formerly Twitter) to mark his return to this social network owned by Elon Musk.
In fact, he didn’t stop at using it on X. His campaign team has also started selling T-shirts with the photo on it and other memorabilia is said to be in the works, according to the New York Times.
The mugshot is even being used as the centerpiece of a new fundraising appeal launched by candidate Donald Trump.
“It’s the perfect tool to activate the most radical section of your electoral base, always ready to support you financially to deal with your legal problems,” says Thomas Gift, director of the Center for the Study of American Politics at University College London. .
For this expert, the mugshot is above all a sales pitch for Donald Trump, who needs to pay his lawyer bills.
The former president also believes that this mugshot can serve his political strategy, although the photograph reminds us that it is a man “who faces 91 charges, some of which are identical to those presented against mafia bosses in the years 30,” says Richard Hargy, a British specialist in American politics.
“For any other politician, such a mugshot would be the end of a career. For Donald Trump, it’s a springboard,” states ‘CNN‘.
In fact, in the case of the former president, “it is a gift to him because it illustrates the narrative that he has constantly told voters: he is the victim of a witch hunt for political reasons. This image serves to portray him as a martyr persecuted by prosecutors too careful”, summarizes Thomas Gift.
carefully orchestrated anger
But a martyr ready for battle. “I’m sure he’s rehearsed the pose he did for the photo dozens of times in front of a mirror. It’s very well done,” says Richard Hargy.
For this expert, Donald Trump tries to project “the image of an intimidating man, which he has always presented as a quality.” The anger that also shines through is “a pose that is supposed to indicate that he is prepared for confrontation and that he is not afraid of the enemy,” adds Anurag Mishra, a US policy specialist with the Verona-based International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS).
This mugshot also reinforces “Donald Trump’s credibility as an anti-establishment candidate in the eyes of his electoral base,” says René Lindstädt, a specialist in US politics at the University of Birmingham. The latter, often fueled by conspiracy theory, believe they are fighting an unequal battle against the powerful and “want a candidate capable of circumventing the rules imposed by the government,” adds René Lindstädt.
The former president hopes that this photo will do his political business beyond his most loyal voters. A presidential election is won by reaching beyond the traditional electoral base. “An interesting first test will be to see what effect this photo has on more moderate Republican voters,” says René Lindstädt.
This cliché can be the judicial scandal for some of them. But the experts interviewed believe that most moderate Republicans will only join the anti-Trump bandwagon if the other candidates in the Republican primary or the conservative media use this photo to criticize Trump. But, for the moment, this is not the case.
Dilemma for Democrats
The former president can also use this image to convince undecided Republicans by suggesting that it shows that “he is the right-wing candidate most attacked by the Democratic leadership because he is the one they fear the most,” says Anurag Mishra.
What will happen to independent voters – who often play a crucial role in presidential elections – if Donald Trump does indeed become the Republican Party’s nominee? The risk is that some of them will see in this photo “the relentlessness of a power against a man who represents the presidential position” to which a large number of Americans are attached, warns Anurag Mishra. All this makes Donald Trump more likeable in his eyes.
But this image is unlikely “to have a really significant effect on independent voters,” says Richard Hargy. It all depends on how the Democratic Party uses it in the event of a face-off with Donald Trump.
The temptation to exploit it to the fullest can be strong, since this mugshot “is a constant reminder that Donald Trump is not only a politician, but also a man accused of serious crimes,” underlines Richard Hargy. In this sense, it can be an effective tool to mobilize Democratic voters tempted to abstain. But it can also convince some voters that the Democrats are really going for Donald Trump.
For the Republican Party, this police file represents another example of the “process of self-destruction undertaken by this movement,” says René Lindstädt. Because if – as seems likely – they name and support Donald Trump as their candidate, “conservatives will be able to make a definitive cross over the image of the law and order party that has been one of the main selling points of Republicans for decades.” “concludes this expert. Although everyone shouts “witch hunt”, the truth is that your champion will have a mugshot in his criminal record.
On August 24, Trump and 18 others were indicted for their alleged illegal attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 election, won in this key battleground state by current Democratic president, Joe Biden. They are prosecuted under a law against organized crime, which provides for sentences of between five and twenty years in prison.
This article was adapted from its original in French
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