ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA - Former US President Donald Trump was booked on state felony charges at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta — the fourth time he ha surrendered to authorities this year.
Mr. Trump was indicted last week, along with 18 political allies, as part of a sprawling racketeering case accusing them of engaging in a “criminal enterprise” whose goal was to “unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
Donald Trump’s mugshot has been released by Georgia authorities after he was booked on more than a dozen felony counts at an Atlanta jail.
Trump, who is running for president in the 2024 election, had already made history as the first former US president to face criminal charges - not once, but four times.
But Thursday marked the first time he had to pose for a booking photo - an image that quickly went viral, being shared around the world by both detractors and supporters.
Unlike the other authorities, who gave him a pass, Georgia opted to process him like any other criminal defendant, taking his fingerprints and a mugshot, in a case stemming from Trump‘s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
The image shows an unsmiling Trump, 77, glaring into the camera, his brow furrowed, his jaw clenched and his red tie knotted tightly.
Trump wasted little time using the mugshot for fundraising purposes. On Friday, he posted it on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, as well as on his own social media platform Truth Social.
The X post was Trump‘s first in more than two-and-a-half years, after his account was banned following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. Elon Musk reinstated Trump‘s account last year soon after acquiring X.
Trump also put the photograph on his campaign website alongside an appeal for donations, claiming he had been “arrested despite having committed no crime”.
Fake Trump mugshots had circulated online since shortly after he was first indicted in Manhattan in March on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump was booked on more than a dozen felony charges at Fulton County jail on Thursday as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former US president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
He was released on a $200,000 bond.
Trump’s lawyer and former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was among a number of others who turned himself in at the jail this week on charges also related to efforts to overturn the results of the election in Georgia.
Dozens of supporters, waving Trump banners and American flags, jostled for a glimpse as Trump arrived at the jail.
His motorcade left the jail about 20 minutes after entering and headed toward Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, where his private jet was waiting to ferry him back to his New Jersey golf club.
He denies all the charges he faces.
Outside the jail on Thursday, some Trump supporters questioned why a mugshot was needed.
“The mug shot isn’t necessary and is done to hurt him. But it won’t,” Malcolm Davis, 19, said.
Others, however, saw an opportunity.
“We want them to take a mugshot. We want to put it on a T-shirt. It will go worldwide. It will be a more popular image than the Mona Lisa,” said Laura Loomer, a former Republican congressional candidate.
