Donald Trump’s mugshot, the first of a former US president, is a priori a source of humiliation. But the billionaire, champion in political communication, has already transformed it into a formidable marketing weapon for the presidential election of 2024.
Head slightly tilted forward, very hard, even aggressive look, as a sign of defiance: the “mug shot” of the 45th president of the United States, immortalized for history by the services of the sheriff of Atlanta, goes around of the world since Thursday evening.
The tabloid New York Post, owned by conservative magnate Rupert Murdoch, made its front page on Friday, with the photo taking up a full page. Untitled.
On the contrary, the New York Times, a newspaper classified on the left in the United States, reduced the photo to the size of a medallion to illustrate an article also on the front page but which shares it with the presumed death of the leader of the Russian group Wagner , Yevgeny Prigojine.
As soon as the legal cliché was made public, supporters of Donald Trump presented the former Republican president as a “hero” victim of persecution and a “witch hunt” orchestrated by the Democrats of Joe Biden.
The current president is careful not to comment on the four indictments of his predecessor. But, to a journalist who asked him on Friday if he had seen the famous photo, Joe Biden replied with a smile: “I saw it on television. A handsome guy”.
For its part, the “Trump 2024” campaign team immediately surfed on the “mug shot” effect by launching an appeal to every American “patriot”.
This statement claims that “the shadow state is trying to make President Trump public enemy number one in order to dare to challenge the corrupt ruling class in Washington” and denounces an “official court photo that presents him as a criminal in the eyes of the whole world.”
But “President Trump will never give up on our mission to make America great again”, hammer his supporters, demanding 47 dollars in contribution for a new fundraiser from the Republican candidate, well ahead of the polls for the primaries of his party in 2024.
In exchange, everyone is offered a white t-shirt printed with the passport photo under which is displayed the slogan “NEVER SURRENDER!” (“NEVER SURRENDER!”).
The photo also marks the return of Donald Trump to Twitter, renamed X by billionaire Elon Musk who bought it.
His last post on this platform, once his favorite channel of communication, was on January 8, 2021. He was banned from it after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington, led by his supporters.
This ban has since been lifted.
So one of the Trump sons, Donald Jr., reposted his dad’s “mug shot,” along with a threatening message: “Hey, Shadow State – He’s coming to get you. you on January 20, 2025”, the date of the assumption of office of the president who will be elected on November 5, 2024.
And for the Republican representative of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, classified on the far right, this photo of “our president (…) is the one who will win the presidential election of 2024”.
The cliché is also diverted on social networks in humorous montages and memes, favorable or hostile.
Moviegoers see Donald Trump’s threatening face as a nod to the famous “Kubrick stare” (“Kubrick Stare”) named after British director Stanley Kubrick: the character stares at the camera by tilting his head forward, with an expression that can frighten the viewer, like Malcom McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange”.
For Daniel Binns, British boss of the New York political marketing agency Interbrand, the diversion of the “mug shot” makes it an “extremely powerful” derivative of the “brand” Trump.
The former tycoon has a form of political “marketing genius”, according to this expert. Donald Trump “can use everything that is said, everything that he is accused of and make it something that fits the story he wants to tell”.
For Miro Cernetig, who presents himself on X as a creator and developer of brands for companies, the “marketing stunt is brilliant, even if it can be crude”.
“Trump knows better than anyone how to use the media and controversy to propel his brand (…) monetize a mug shot to instantly make millions” of dollars.
08/26/2023 00:52:37 – New York (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
