45th President of the United States: Dissident and Martyr?
Trump’s Mug Shot Makes Him an Iconic Dissident like Gandhi, Mandela, Solzhenitsyn, and Martin Luther King
September 2, 2023–“Trump’s mug shot is now his campaign poster,” says Michael Tomasky, Editor of The New Republic.
On the fourth unprecedented indictment of a former president occurring over the last five months, Fani Willis, Georgia Fulton County DA, succumbed to the temptation to not only book Donald J. Trump and fingerprint him at the county jail, but she went a step further than any other prosecutors in these politically motivated cases by making Trump and his 18 co-defendants sit for mug shots.
Trump’s jail photo is called the ‘mug shot heard around the world.’ It went viral within seconds of its release. If Biden’s campaign consists of persecuting/prosecuting his political rival for the White House, then it follows that the political and societal chaos created by these court cases is Trump’s campaign.
Tomasky, in an MSNBC segment said, ‘they’re making Trump a martyr; his voters are not rejecting him because of these indictments’ and admits the slogan ‘they are coming after me, next they will come after you’ works better than any policy proposal. Tomasky did not intend his comments as flattery. (See Resources for link.)
Trump used the mug shot in his inaugural Twitter-X post last week. He was allowed back months ago after former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, banned him from the platform, but chose not to post until now.
According to Elon Musk, X (formerly Twitter) CEO, the Trump mug shot post is being viewed over 10 million times a day,
Other than a dateline and a URL to his website, the post contained four words: Never Surrender. Election Interference.
The mug shot is not only garnering millions of views on X, but two other key metrics are soaring. Trump merch sales are into the stratosphere and he is getting a bump in the national polls against Biden. John McLaughlin of McLaughlin Associates released new numbers this week showing Trump is up 8-9 points against Biden in battleground states and up by 4 points nationally. Both numbers are higher than 2016 or 2020.
The mug shot bonanza comes on the heels of the Tucker interview bonanza last week that ‘broke the internet’ and now has over 255 million views. (Image below from @realDonald Trump, Truth Social.)
What was Fani Willis Thinking?
How stupid was it that Fani Willis, a key figure in the plot to Get Trump!, took a mug shot of Donald J. Trump, the unrivaled leader of his America First populist political movement numbering 75 million plus plus voters in the middle of a presidential campaign?
ArtNet felt compelled to cover the mug shot story saying: “Photo history shows that mug shots aren’t just legal documents. They are designed to circulate as media spectacle.”
Not only are his voters the most loyal voters in the country (which hurts Democrats, according to pollster John McLaughlin, who says Democrats are shopping for a new candidate), but he is a brilliant marketer squarely positioned to leverage — as he has many many times — any news event to his advantage.
Trump is the king of campaign merch with the highest sales of of any presidential campaign in both 2016 and 2020 overtaking Barack Obama’s haul from 2008.
Trump regularly bests all comers in these head-to-head media ratings battles too as we saw in the Tucker interview on Twitter-X last week that aired against the Fox News-RNC Presidential debate. It only got an anemic 12.5 viewers.
By the Numbers: Merch and Polls
Trump reportedly raked in $7.1 million in Never Surrender Mug merch within 48 hours of the mug shot release, and now campaign revenues are up $21 million. Full story here.
Trump continuously promotes his new Never Surrender mugs, tees, stickers, and beverage coolers on Truth Social but it doesn’t account for the reach his Never Surrender campaign has had since the mug shot was released.
Trump’s Polls are Up, Up, Up
After the indictments but before the debate, Trump is up against Biden according to John McLaughlin’s latest polls.
A preview:
McLaughlin has Trump defeating Biden nationally and dominating in 17 battlegrounds states:
TRUMP – 47%
BIDEN – 43%
Key Battleground states:
TRUMP – 49%
BIDEN – to 41%
McLaughlin Predicts Trump Wins Popular Vote
The really big news, according to McLaughlin, is that Trump has not only seen an 8 point turnaround in polls against Biden in 17 battleground states which means Trump would win in a landslide, but there are indications he will win the popular vote too.
Democrats have tried to use not winning the popular vote even when a candidate wins the electoral college as the basis to discredit an election. Hillary Clinton pounded this point home after her loss to Trump in 2016. The irony here does not need any further explanation.
Furthermore, McLaughlin said on Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks (Real America’s Network) ‘Trump’s voters are the most loyal and will stick with him while Biden’s voters are looking for other candidates. Some are voting for Trump but others will vote third party for candidates like Cornel West. This is another negative for Biden and the Democrats.”
Click on this link for September 1 segment on Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks. Full interview with John McLaughlin. Listen at about 6:00 in for quote above. Bonus data on how African Americans are voting.
https://americasvoice.news/playlists/show/outside-the-beltway/
For more poll data from the McLaughlin poll, go here: https://www.newsmax.com/mclaughlin/biden-fulton-trump/2023/08/29/id/1132479/
What’s in a Mug Shot?
America loves outlaws, renegades, rebels with or without a cause, and heroes who stand on principle against a villain or insurmountable odds. Adding to the list of characters, and stereotypical figures we already associated with Trump – which we have noted here, here, and here – is Trump the Martyr!
Is it a new low for our favorite president or is it a turning point that will catapult him to the White House in 2024 attracting as it seems new demographics of voters to his side?
Predictably, legacy media outlets are towing the anti-Trump line. The Washington Post came up with the a headline that is spot on, “Trump’s mug shot is perfectly on brand” then opens with this dreck:
It should surprise no one that Donald Trump’s surrender at Georgia’s Fulton County Jail on Thursday was choreographed to coincide precisely with prime time: The former president once again proved his media savvy, this time leveraging what people capable of shame would consider an ignominious moment into a perverse grab for the spotlight. Dinnertime news viewers were primed for a sickening spectacle wherein pomp and circumstance had devolved into perp walk.
Note to Wapo: Donald Trump had no say in it whatsoever. The DA is in charge of Donald Trump’s arrival time, booking, and release from the county jail. Period. And, yes – his facial expression in the mug shot (that should never have been taken) and merch sales that followed in its wake are on brand.
Meanwhile, Blacks for Trump lined streets feeding into the county jail ‘showering him’ with support as they cheered his motorcade. This is new support from blacks who identify with the persecution of Donald Trump and it is obvious this new development worries the MSM because they are not covering this story. Blacks in Fulton County are saying, “They’re doing to him what was done to us.” The mug shot and the Trump prosecution have galvanized this for them.
This week pollsters are claiming Trump’s support among blacks has shot up from 8% to 20%. It is a well-known fact in politics that if a Republican earns even 12% of the black vote, it spells a landslide victory.
Anecdotal signs of this are cropping up. Black rapper Chief Keef posted Trump will win black males in 2024. He also says if Trump goes to prison he’ll run the jail. This TikTok video by indictthis boasts, ‘it’s poetic justice [the mug shot] because that culture supports this.’ Cue laughter.
Trump was quick to thank those who came out to support him which a local Fox News report characterized as ‘historically black communities.’ Click for the full Fox report and Trump’s video response:
Similar to WaPo and honestly almost every single media outlet we perused, Wired magazine begins its mug shot article with a premise anyone can get behind: “In a world of fakes, Trump’s real mug shot matters.” Sounds like they have the public’s interest at heart. Wired breathlessly maintains that his fake photo had flooded the market and even Donald Trump uploaded a fake mug shot ‘to raise money.’
Wired finds fault in how Trump ‘chose’ to pose for his ‘poorly lit’ photo:
In an era where manipulated images have captured our attention, Trump’s real mug shot—a simple, poorly lit photo—has achieved historic hype. It’s not that the image alone is notable—Trump is among the most recognizable faces in the world, and he chose to pose for the shot with his eyebrows knitted in his signature, serious look.
Wired, August 24, 2024
More unbiased reporting from their ArtNet mug shot article:
It’s a rich, equivocal image. The 45th President glares at the camera, his face pitched forward, frame right, and cast in the shadow of swooped hair. Below he wears a blue suit and a red tie that draws out the vessels of his eyes. Critics will see the menacing glower of a villain, supporters a look of steely determination. Some will find in it a symbol of justice triumphing over a man who had evaded it for so long; others a metaphor for the modern American political machine: tired, corrupt, sensationalized. Â
Artnet, August 25, 2024
People were speculating how Trump would pose. Charlie Kirk thought it would unnerve opponents if Trump, ‘leaned in with a big smile.’ Trump did the opposite to great effect.
The international press, as with this Times of India article below, can be more favorable toward Trump than our own. At least this article points to Trump’s mug shot as a ‘symbol of defiance against tyranny.’ Read it here:
Gallery: Mug Shot Memes & Cartoons
When the mug shot hit, I immediately identified it with the image of an eagle, an American eagle!
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RESOURCES
War Room (9/1/23) at Real America’s Voice: Link to Tomasky show open here.
To purchase Never Surrender and other Donald Trump campaign gear, go to: https://tinyurl.com/37b3z352
