The backfire heard around the world: Media could take no joy in the mug shot that made history

Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, August 27, 2023

Leftist media personalities salivating at the prospect of sticking it to Donald Trump as the mug shot from his Georgia arrest was released, were later seen licking their wounds.

Trump promptly used the mug shot with “Never Surrender!” in his first X post since January 2021, and it immediately went mega viral. Instead of party-time for the Left and its media, the “badass” mug shot had within hours  established itself as iconic historical image and the defining moment for Trump and his movement.

“Trump orchestrated a complete and total takeover of the narrative surrounding his pre-arrest, arrest, and the aftermath of his fourth indictment. And in doing so, Trump managed to deflate the hopes of liberals all over the world who had been eagerly anticipating mocking him at his lowest, and most humble moment,” Revolver News noted.

One of the first outlets in need of a “waambulance” was The Atlantic.

Megan Garber’s “reporting” on the mug shot ran under the headline “The Mug Shot Is a Warning”, with the subhead “Donald Trump’s booking photo was supposed to be an exercise in humility. He turned it into a threat.”

Garber wrote: “Last night, the 45th president became inmate number P01135809 of Georgia’s Fulton County Jail. Trump had his mug shot taken. It was shared with the public. We looked, of course. And he was prepared for our gaze: hair, makeup, angle, pose. In the portrait — it is a portrait, in the end — Trump glares directly into the camera. He seethes. He glowers. He turns in a studied performance. Photos like this are typically exercises in enforced humility. Trump’s is a display of ongoing power. He treats his mug shot as our menace.”

The Left, Revolver News noted, are “basically furious that Trump has once again outmaneuvered them. They were hoping for an image of him looking small and humiliated, not resolute and formidable.”

Further humiliation for the Left’s pundits came as Trump used the mug shot to raise funds for his campaign. A record-breaking amount, actually.

As of Saturday evening, Trump had raised $7.1 million since he was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Thursday.

According to Politico, the former president’s campaign broke a 24-hour fundraising record for his campaign on Friday after it brought in $4.18 million selling merchandise with Trump’s mugshot on it with the slogan “NEVER SURRENDER!” and blasting out campaign emails.

Journalist Miranda Devine posted on X a screenshot of one of the campaign emails that read, “It’s not enough for the ruling party to ARREST its leading opponent as an innocent man and force me to take a mug shot despite being one of the most recognizable people in the world.”

The email noted that Joe Biden is “gleefully raising money off” Trump’s arrest. Biden’s handlers made a post on X asking for donations at the exact time that Trump scheduled to turn himself in.

The post read, “Apropos of nothing, I think today’s a great day to give to my campaign.”

So, what is the catchier slogan, “Apropos of nothing” or “NEVER SURRENDER”?

MSNBC personality Joy Reid warned the masses (or at least the scant few that watch her show) that the image was a “sinister apparition.”

Over at CNN (which has even scanter masses watching than Reid), Atlanta-Journal-Constitution political reporter Patricia Murphy worried that Trump’s mug shot “has galvanized his supporters even further. That’s going to be a huge problem if he makes it to a general campaign. But so far right now, his base is sticking with him more than they ever have.”

The key phrase here is “if he makes it to a general campaign.” However furious they are over the mug shot, the major media is still playing the long game of pushing for Trump to be prohibited from running in 2024.

As Revolver News put it: “The Left has been anticipating this photo for eight long years, imagining it as their defining moment, not Trump’s. But the reality didn’t meet their expectations, leaving them profoundly disappointed.”

The Guardian (of leftism) claimed in a review of the mug shot that it looked “more like a foolish old man with anger issues than a presidential candidate.”

Perhaps The Guardian in its rage had confused old men with issues running for president?

Speaking of anger issues, major media couldn’t have been happy with this post-GOP debate poll:

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