Trump mugshot in Georgia case triggers meme frenzy on social media
Former President Donald Trump’s official mugshot sent social media reeling late Thursday and early Friday, as liberal users mocked the 2024 Republican front-runner’s arrest and conservatives rallied around the ex-commander-in-chief.
Trump was booked in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail on Thursday evening, receiving the label of prisoner No. PO1135809 before he was fingerprinted and had his mugshot taken.
The 77-year-old scowled at the camera while wearing his signature blue suit and bright red tie.
Soon after, hashtags such as #TrumpMugshot and #OrangeIsTheNewOrange began trending on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Some users poked fun at jail records reporting Trump as weighing 215 pounds and having “blonde or strawberry” hair, with one meme showing Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama laughing at the former president’s self-reported dimensions.
Others Photoshopped President Biden behind Trump and sniffing the former president.
Hours before the mugshot was released, X was buzzing with anticipation of the image, with some users sharing memes showing them watching several different screens waiting for the image to drop.
Upon the photo’s release, social media users compared his facial expression to Ben Stiller’s smoldering look in “Zoolander” as well as the infamous Kubrick Stare — when a character in a Stanley Kubrick movie stares directly into the camera to signal the height of their derangement.
Several users even seemed to celebrate the release of the image, with one user sharing a meme showing Trump with glowing red eyes and the word “Retribution.”
Some also joked that the mugshot would be Trump’s official White House portrait, Photoshopping White House employees hanging it up in the executive mansion.
On TikTok, a video showing Nickelback holding up the mugshot while singing “Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh” has garnered more than 797,800 views, with more than 115,000 likes and 25,000 shares.
Trump himself also shared the mugshot, after being released on $200,000 bond, writing, “Election interference. Never surrender,” with a link to his campaign website.
That marked his first time on the platform since Jan. 8, 2021, when he was suspended for more than two years following the Capitol riot two days earlier. His account was later reinstated by new Twitter boss Elon Musk.
On Thursday, Trump posted a meme of the mugshot to his Truth Social platform, showing him surrounded by people pointing pistols at his face and head.
Each weapon was emblazoned with words representing those he considers his enemies, including “Soros,” “pedophiles,” “Democrats,” “globalists,” “fake news,” and the “FBI.”
A frame around the image read: “NEVER SURRENDER! WE STAND UNITED WITH TRUMP!”
Now, some who support the former president have turned the mugshot into a rallying cry.
“I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis who is nothing more than a political hitman tasked with taking out Biden’s top political opponent. ‘Persecution, not prosecution,’” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted with hashtag #MAGAMugshot.
Candace Owens also said she thought she would feel anger and despair at the Trump mugshot.
“Surprisingly, it’s very rock ‘n roll,” she tweeted Friday. “Feels like a vintage tee that I need.”
The Trump campaign is now capitalizing on the viral image — hawking T-shirts and other merchandise featuring his booking photo.
The new line of mugshot-inspired gear appeared on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign site Thursday night. It includes T-shirts and long-sleeve shirts for $34, a $25 coffee mug, and $15 beer Koozies.
The tagline under the mugshot on the official MAGA gear states “NEVER SURRENDER!” in all caps, despite the fact that Trump did in fact surrender.
“Today, at the notoriously violent jail in Fulton County, Georgia, I was ARRESTED despite having committed NO CRIME,” Trump wrote in a message that appears on the landing page of the site.
“…Today, I walked into the lion’s den with one simple message on behalf of our entire movement: I WILL NEVER SURRENDER OUR MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA.”
