Former President Donald Trump, who has the distinction of being the only former or current POTUS with a mug shot, has continued to capitalize on his booking photo from Fulton County. This week, Trump unleashed an entirely ad-libbed commercial for his new mug shot-adorned campaign gear, which he credited to “the communist Democrats in Atlanta” for making possible.
Trump opens the commercial with a question that likely prompts a multitude of reactions depending on who is asked: “Is there anyone on the planet that doesn’t know what I look like?” He then adds, “I wish there were some people like that. It’d be very nice for me.” (Same.)
It becomes immediately clear that the commercial serves two purposes: to sell T-shirts and gear, and to perpetuate falsehoods surrounding the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump continues, “And yet, for some reason, the communist Democrats in Atlanta made a mug shot of me. That’s a mug shot because I said the election was rigged, and I believe it more strongly than ever was a rigged election. We all know why and we know what they’re doing and we certainly get it.”
It’s difficult to deny that Trump’s arrest has been a bit of a boon to his campaign, which claims to have raised $10 million since his arrest on Aug. 24 — including just over $4 million in the 24 hours after his mug shot photo was published. Trump also accuses “Crooked Joe Biden” and “the Deep State” of orchestrating “election interference” to stop his 2024 campaign, but claims his voter base can see through those attempts.
He continues, “The people get it. The people know this is a sham and a scam. This is nothing but election interference. They want to interfere with our election so they can try and damage me with all these bulls–t lawsuits that you see flying all over the place.”
Saturday morning, Trump was back on Truth Social cozying up to Fox News via the social media platform. Despite skipping the network’s first Republican primary debate on Aug. 23 and sitting down for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson instead, he praised the network’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” as a “great show” and said that “Pete Hegseth, Rachel Campos-Duffy, & Will Cain” are “just right.”
So Trump’s feelings are complicated.
