Former US president Donald Trump’s historic mug shot, posted by a Georgia courthouse on Thursday evening, is being turned into T-shirts, shot glasses, mugs, posters and even bobblehead dolls by friends and foes alike.
The shot of Trump with a red tie, glistening hair and an icy scowl was taken as the Republican presidential front-runner was arrested on more than a dozen felony charges, part of a criminal case stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.
Supporters and campaign managers have embraced the image of his arrest, as they rally around Trump’s claims that the charges against him are politically motivated.
Photo: Reuters
To critics, the photo is a symbol that his long list of legal woes has finally caught up to him.
Trump’s Save America fundraising committee is selling “NEVER SURRENDER!” mug shot T-shirts (US$34.00), beverage holders (US$15.00 for two) and coffee mugs (US$25.00). His son Donald Trump Jr is marketing “FREE TRUMP” mug shot T-shirts (US$29.99) and posters (US$19.99).
On the other side of the political divide, the Lincoln Project, a prominent anti-Trump group founded by Republicans, is selling shot glasses (US$55.00 for six) with the mug shot and “FAFO,” an acronym for “Fuck Around and Find Out,” a rallying cry among Trump critics. Etsy, the crafts Web site, has dozens of mocking products, including a Taylor Swift concert T-shirt parody (US$26.00).
In Los Angeles, a T-shirt store unaffiliated with any campaign had already started selling tops emblazoned with the image on Friday afternoon.
“I think it’s very classic consumerism for this country,” said shopper CJ Butler from Atlanta, Georgia. “Hey, it’s Trump. He sells everything so why not have a T-shirt?”
The image could be a huge fundraiser for the Republican candidate, some political strategists predict.
“His super-fans are going to see this and it will be a fist-pumping exercise for them to send in that US$25 and get that shirt or that mug,” said David Kochel, a veteran Republican presidential campaign operative in Iowa. “It’s kind of sad at the end of the day that the campaign is going to celebrate his indictment over 13 criminal charges — but that’s where our politics is.”
Trump has for months sought to leverage the criminal probes against him to rally support from his base, starting with his first indictment in New York. His fundraising groups, including his past and current presidential campaigns, have reported investing more than US$98 million in merchandise operations since 2015, buying items like bumper stickers, hoodies and coffee mugs to sell.
Co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said after the Republican debate on Wednesday that his team had been focused on turning the four indictments into a positive, “making sure that we were making lemonade at every opportunity, which I think we did.”
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS