Perspective: Of mugshots and merch — notes on ‘a very sad day for America’

The gleefulness with which many Americans have shared the mugshots of former President Donald Trump and others indicted in Georgia belies the somberness of the moment and also the serious debate over the ethics of the public consumption of these sorts of images.

There’s definitely an appetite for mugshots — not only the historic one of Trump, but also the thousands taken every day of ordinary people who don’t get the opportunity to plan what they’ll wear or the expression on their face. Certainly, very few are able to use the photo to their professional advantage.

Mugshots may be necessary within the justice system — they document a person’s physical condition at the time of arrest, for one thing — but once outside it, they are ethically problematic. They record what for many people, especially the innocent, is the worst moment of their life, and they’re so difficult to purge from the internet that there are businesses that profit from the enterprise.

The opposite, of course, is happening with Trump.

Much has been made of the fact this is the first mugshot of a former U.S. president, but the gravitas of the moment was quickly lost in the hype, much of it generated by Trump himself. If mugshots were an Oscar category — Best Commercial Use of a Still Image Taken in a County Jail — Trump would win. Hands down.

Moments after his booking, the campaign had sent supporters an email with the headline “Breaking News: The Mugshot is Here!” offering a T-shirt featuring the photo for anyone who contributed $47 (the significance of the number being that if Trump were to be reelected, he would be both the 45th and 47th president).

The campaign had to act quickly lest sellers on Etsy make all the money.

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Trump’s expression, variously described in the media as menacing, glowering and scowling, had surely been rehearsed; he is our greatest living showman. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times said, “It isn’t just that he wants to look menacing, which is certainly true, and he has made that kind of face in photos for years and years and years. He doesn’t want to look weak, and that’s what that’s about.”

Yet those who have long been publicly rooting for the moment to be a humiliating experience — among them Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC, who said the booking “will be the greatest humiliation Donald Trump has suffered in the 77 years of his relentlessly humiliating life” — are now appreciating the adage “be careful what you wish for.” Trump supporters on social media are declaring the mugshot to be “the world’s biggest backfire,” and they may not be wrong.

The evidence for that was seen on the platform formerly known as Twitter, where Trump tweeted for the first time since January 2021. The timing of his return was in itself a remarkable bit of political theater.

In addition to freshly invigorating Trump’s supporters, the mugshot and booking delivered a one-two punch in virtually wiping Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate out of the national conversation. That debate now seems two weeks, not two days ago.

Against all odds, Trump won the optics on Thursday — he did that even before the mugshot came out, with the visual of that muscular Boeing 757, emblazoned with an American flag, waiting to take off from Hartsfield-Jackson. The image, which lingered on all the cable news networks, was pure Trump.

But there was a hint of what lies ahead in his later remarks when, devoid of his usual bravado, Trump spoke of the “terrible experience” and said “It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.”

The fervor of this moment will die down, leaving only the formidable stack of charges facing Trump and his legal team, and the unpleasant road we’re all about to travel down as a country.

The truest thing about what happened Thursday was unexpectedly said by Trump, who told reporters after his booking, “This is a very sad day for America that should never happen.”

And on that, we can all unite, regardless of what we think about Trump.