President Donald Trump has been making history nearly every day since his inauguration. He’s the first convicted felon to ever hold the office of president, he’s emboldened a tech billionaire to take over the federal government, and now his mug shot is decorating the wall just outside the Oval Office.
These truly are unprecedented times.
Eagle-eyed social media denizens spotted the president’s infamous mug shot in the background of photos taken during Trump’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on February 13, Newsweek reports.
The mug shot, which shows Trump with his head tipped down, glaring at the camera, was taken when he was brought up on charges that he illegally planned to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Now, the gold-framed booking photo is hanging on the wall in the hallway, where it can be seen from inside the Oval Office.
While some people might try to bury that photo, Trump has treated it like a badge of honor. After the image was released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, the Trump campaign turned the image into merchandise, selling mugs, T-shirts, and beer koozies emblazoned with the photo and the phrase “Never Surrender!”
According to Forbes, Trump made $7.1 million selling merch within days of having his mug shot taken at the Fulton County jail.
Trump has used the mugshot to help position himself as the victim of political persecution. He even bragged about the image during a roundtable discussion with Black voters in the lead up to the presidential election, claiming that the mugshot helped him win over Black and Hispanic voters.
"The mug shot is the best ev—it just beat Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra by a lot. That's the No. 1 mug shot of all time. It's really an amazing thing. Since it happened, the support among the Black community and Hispanic community has skyrocketed,” Trump said as reported by Newsweek.
He also told reporters in August 2023 that he wasn’t “not worried” about the photo being made public because it’s “going to be the most iconic photo in the history of U.S. politics, if not perhaps the history of the United States.” He’s so proud of the booking photo that he even seemed to recreate the same facial expression for his presidential portrait.
His MAGA followers seem to agree and have take to X (formerly Twitter) to praise Trump for “trolling” Democrats with the photo.
Now that Trump is in office, it’s unclear what will happened to the Georgia election interference charges that lead to the infamous mug shot.
