There are millions of photos of Donald Trump. Flattering or ridiculous, solemn or preposterous. The one seized on Thursday 24 August stands out among all: it is a mugshot, a photo ID as a defendant. The gaze of the former American president is straight, hard, defiant. Artificial light only falls on his left profile. Donald Trump has formally surrendered to justice in Fulton County in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of his fourth indictment in a few months, decided by a grand jury on August 14. Bail for his release was set at $200,000. So he left as he had arrived: free and desperate.
Donald Trump is being prosecuted along with 18 other people – including Rudolph Giuliani, his former lawyer, and Mark Meadows, who ran his White House law firm – for fomenting a “criminal enterprise” to manipulate Georgia’s outcome of the 2020 presidential election, similar to similar efforts in several other key states. The prosecutor, Fani Willis, shows ardor and firmness in her discussions with the lawyers. She is considering a trial as early as March 2024, but the timing remains uncertain.
THE mugshot of Trump has an iconic destiny, reproduced from T-shirt to poster, from site to meme by his own team. The billionaire has also marked his return to X (ex-Twitter) after two years of abstinence, broadcasting the photo with the slogan “never surrender!” » A paradox: he had just done it. The day before, Wednesday, the ex-president had confirmed his visit to Atlanta, on his Truth Social network: “I will be proudly arrested tomorrow afternoon in Georgia. »
He did it again on Thursday, announcing the time of his formal arrest: 7:30 p.m. This bravado tone sums up his strategy. Instead of putting behind him the false accusations of fraud during the 2020 presidential election, Trump is digging this furrow where the truth is drowning. “The evidence is irrefutable! », he wrote on Thursday. On several occasions, he organized in his golf club in Bedminster (New Jersey) evenings in support of the organization Patriot Freedom Project, which defends those convicted in the federal investigation for the assault on the Capitol.
The Republican Party against the police and justice
The collision of political and judicial calendars is both a blessing and a headache for Donald Trump. It is costing him dearly financially and risks preventing him, in the spring of 2024, from conducting a classic campaign, over the primaries. But it has allowed him to cement the Republican base since the beginning of 2023. Trump has chosen to transform the legal chronicle into a big show soap opera, of which he would be a tragic hero, a suffering martyr for his people.
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