Right outside the Oval Office hangs a framed photo of President Trump’s mug shot, as featured on the cover of a New York tabloid.
The image, which shows Trump scowling to the camera for his booking shot at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, has become a symbol. That booking photo was taken for a Georgia case related to his efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election result. Experts say many of Trump’s supporters see the dozens of felony convictions against the president in a separate case in New York as part of an establishment ploy to suppress their discontent.
“When Trump’s mug shot was released in August 2023, he and his supporters immediately embraced it, and it became a really common feature on Trump-themed merchandise and in Trump favorable memes,” said Cara Finnegan, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“The reasons he embraced it, I think, are because he wanted to kind of flout the legal fight against him, which he believed was a conspiracy designed to take him down,” Finnegan said. “And so that kind of approach, whether it’s based on fact or law, really animates the base.”
In Georgia, where the mug shot was taken, Trump still faces charges related to efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election outcome.
He was ultimately convicted, separately, in New York on 34 felony counts of falsified business records tied to a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Trump received an unconditional discharge for his criminal conviction in that case, meaning he will not face fines, prison or any other penalties.
The New York state case was the only one of Trump’s criminal cases to go to trial. Federal prosecutors dropped two other criminal cases against Trump after he won the 2024 election.
Trump is the first president — sitting or otherwise — to be convicted of criminal charges. His proud display of his mug shot is just the latest example of his disregard for political norms.
“The hanging of his own mug shot framed outside the office, I think, needs to be understood as Trump thumbing his nose at convention,” Finnegan said.
“It’s really important to note that he’s sending political signals by doing this. And he’s making sure that people understand that he’s not going to be constrained by legal convention in this presidency,” Finnegan said, pointing to Trump’s sweeping and legally complex executive orders.
Trump isn’t the only politician to capitalize on scandal. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry also merchandised pictures of his mug shot after he was accused of abusing his position as governor.
But the growing willingness to embrace controversy does not bode well for the health of democracy, according to Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.
“Scandals don’t have the same sanction that they used to have,” Rottinghaus said. “The loss of political scandals means that there’s a loss of accountability. Scandals are like the canary in the coal mine. If scandals don’t matter, then we lose a triggering mechanism that tells us there’s a flaw in the system.”
