Behold the First Ever Presidential Mugshot

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office released what will go down as one of the most historic photos in American history on Thursday: The mugshot of former President Donald Trump.

Here it is: 

Trump surrendered himself to authorities in Georgia for his fourth arrest Thursday evening, and while he’s already gone through the process multiple times, this is the first time he — or any current or former commander-in-chief — has had his mugshot taken.

Earlier this month, Trump and 18 of his allies were charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in a sprawling RICO indictment resulting from a lengthy investigation into efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Several of Trump’s co-defendants — including coup architect John Eastman, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — have already surrendered to authorities.

Multiple co-defendants’ decision to smile in their booking photos can be seen as an act of defiance against what they perceive as an unlawful persecution of their efforts to keep Trump in power. Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Trump who was booked Wednesday, explained to The New York Times that “those who mock me, my former client, and my God want to see me break and they aren’t going to get that satisfaction.” Ellis made the mugshot her profile picture on Twitter.  

Fulton County authorities broke with fellow prosecutors who had granted requests to forgo an official booking photograph in Trump’s previous arrests. County Sheriff Pat Labat stated publicly that he didn’t care who Trump was, and that he would receive the exact same treatment as any other defendant being processed by the county. 

“Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you,” Lebat told reporters earlier this month. 

The image is already primed to become one of the most remarkable photos in the history of the country. Lara Trump, daughter-in-law to the former president and a surrogate for his campaign, told Newsmax on Wednesday that the mugshot will be “the most famous mugshot in the history of the world.”

“It’s gonna backfire on them,” she said. “It’s going to be on posters in people’s dorm rooms, it’s going to be on t-shirts. It is going to be a flag flown by people who love this country because they’re backing Donald Trump.”

Social media waited for the image with bated breath and a whole lot of memes. The hashtag “TrumpMugShot” began trending on Twitter Thursday morning, and refused to budge throughout the day. Some Trump allies, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), are even working up their own mock mugshots in solidarity with the former president. “I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis who is nothing more than a political hitman tasked with taking out Biden’s top political opponent,” Greene wrote along with the hashtag #MAGAMugshot.

The distribution of the image through merchandise and media is also a certainty, as the mugshots of Trump’s co-defendants are already plastered on print-on-demand websites like Etsy and Redbubble. Trump will certainly take full advantage, as well. The former president is already selling merchandise on his campaign website featuring a fake version of the mugshot over the words “NOT GUILTY.” The real thing will likely make its way onto official campaign merch faster than you can say “cheese.”