Donald Trump already has the image of a political martyr that he was looking for: that of a former president, a candidate for re-election and, therefore, a common prisoner whom the judicial system exploited by Joe Biden and the other forces of evil want to crucify to prevent him from returning to life. the White House. That is his speech for months, now perfectly illustrated with the figure of him before the photo booth of a third-rate prison.
The truth is that the leader of the ultra-right American Republican descended yesterday into the worst hells reserved for white-collar criminals, receiving treatment as a common prisoner after his arrest on 13 charges related to his attempts to falsify the 2020 election results in Georgia; some attempts that he and 18 collaborators and now his co-defendants carried out through mafia-type intimidation, according to the qualification of the Fulton County Prosecutor’s Office under the RICO law against Corrupt Organizations and Extortion of organized crime.
The sheriff of that county, Patrick Labat, threatened with death as a result of the accusation as well as the prosecutor Fani Willis, immediately released the mugshot of “inmate no. P01135809, Donald Trump”, as he had done with those of his alleged co-defendants who had previously turned themselves in, including the former lawyer for the leader and former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, or his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
In the sheriff’s office registry, Trump was listed as “77-year-old male, blonde or reddish hair, blue eyes, 6’4″ tall and 220 pounds.”
As planned and agreed between his lawyers and the Prosecutor’s Office, the former president was immediately released on bail of $200,000, 185,550 euros.
The process culminated in the historic and somewhat grotesque photograph, the first of a former US president on file, lasted a short time: 20 minutes since, shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (1:30 yesterday in Spain), the former president arrived to the filthy Fulton jail, subject to official investigation for its deplorable conditions. It was a “terrible, uncomfortable and very sad” experience, the prisoner would say a few hours later.
The arrival of the famous defendant was spectacular, in a caravan made up of about 15 black armored vans and an ambulance; a convoy comparable to the one that usually transports the active president, which was what it was about.
The formation left the Atlanta airport after the landing of the defendant in his no less impressive plane, unmistakable hundreds of meters away due to the sign of his last name that runs along the fuselage.
The round trip, departing and returning from the closest airfield to the tycoon’s residence and golf club in New Jersey, filled the evening programming of all cable television channels in the United States. A new show from the Trump brand.
Once the judicial and police procedure was completed, it remained to be seen if the leader and candidate for re-election in the 2024 presidential elections would turn his photo of a defiant and somewhat humorous gesture into a campaign poster. So it was.
First of all, Trump published the image in his first tweet on the X network –formerly Twitter– after his readmission to it, last November, by “popular” decision promoted by the new owner of the medium, Elon Musk. The ultra former president had been expelled almost two years earlier for his role as instigator of the assault on the Capitol, on January 6, 2021.
In his return message to X, Trump seasoned the photo on his mugshot with a predictable reiteration of his denunciation of the proceedings against him as judicial manipulation to prevent his return to the White House: “Electoral interference,” he repeated. And he added: “Never give up.”
The prisoner and presidential candidate also posted his photo on his campaign website, along with the request for donations, as well as on his own network, Truth Social.
The use of such a photo as an electoral claim does not seem unreasonable –and even less in the case of Trump–, given the success of the victimization strategy with which until now, cheered on by the leadership of the Republican Party, he has managed to turn each of his accusations into a new momentum in the polls with a view to 2024.
The formula for such success is neither more nor less than a full-blown challenge to the rule of law under the thesis that all the accusations formulated by the Prosecutor’s Office in the four criminal cases followed against him, accusations approved by dozens of citizens gathered in grand juries and overseen by different judges, are part of a massive “Deep State” conspiracy led by Joe Biden to pervert justice in order to prevent him from returning to power.
Trump did not fail to underline the same thesis on Thursday, on foot by plane, before flying back to his New Jersey residence after the bad drink in Fulton: “What has happened here is a travesty of justice. I have not done anything wrong and everyone knows it, ”he said.
The 13 charges against the ultra leader in the Georgia case are added, it must be remembered, to the 78 that he was already facing for the three criminal cases filed against him since the end of March; the assault on the Capitol and other attempts to reverse his electoral defeat in different states (4 crimes); the one related to the concealment of hundreds of secret papers in his residence in Mar-a-Lago (40 charges), and the one for the falsification of accounting documents to mask the bribery of the porn actress Stormy Daniels (34 charges).
On the eve of his delivery in Georgia, Trump bypassed the first debate between Republican candidates for the 2024 primaries, organized by the Fox network under the auspices of the Republican Party. The snub of his absence did not prevent six of the eight candidates who did participate from committing themselves during the debate to supporting the former president if, in the event of winning the primaries, he were convicted by justice.
So much loyalty from the rivals, in affront to the actions of the judiciary in a democratic country, was shocking even within the current parameters of the country; especially when, at the same time, the leader thus backed despised these rivals in an interview designed precisely to counterprogram their debate and in which he went so far as to say that none of them deserved to run for the presidency.
Also the fact that the first ex-president of the United States criminally charged uses the photo of his mugshot as propaganda can be shocking, no matter how logical it may be at this time. But there will be more shocks.
The presidential campaign will perhaps be the most anomalous in the history of this nation. The favorite candidate of the conservatives will have to celebrate it between appearances and trials before judges and courts. Prosecutor Willis wants the Georgia case to be the first of those trials, fast enough to start on October 23rd. Trump will try for his part to keep everything until after the elections. But it will be the judges who will have to decide and, therefore, mark the political calendar of the country in the middle of the electoral campaign.
Meanwhile, in any case, the martyr Donald Trump will be delighted to massively sell the prints of his judicial way of the cross. Especially the one with the emblematic photo of him in the Fulton jail: an icon that is surely being printed on thousands of T-shirts right now all over the United States, and far beyond. The defendant’s campaign, under the financial control of the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, already had them made yesterday -in various models- and it took just a few minutes to put them up for sale. And he didn’t just release T-shirts, at $34 each; Also cups, at 25 dollars, thermos at 15, stickers at 12…
And there will be more, much more. Towels, scarves, caps… Well, millions of Americans, and citizens everywhere, continue to buy everything that comes from Trump… It doesn’t matter that, as it’s well proven, much of it is a big lie.
