What does Trump's historical criminal image mean in Georgia?

The image of Donald Trump, the criminal, instantly became one of the most recognizable images of anyone who has ever held the office of commander-in-chief.

Inmate No. P01135809 stares at his criminal image, his face as stone. It is impossible to know how Trump feels. But the photo, taken after his motorcade entered the Fulton County Jail, does not reflect his trademark bravery. His eyes stare at you. The Fulton County Sheriff's office stamp in the top corner is a reminder that Trump, for all his former power, is beholden to a process in which he cannot control his own destiny.

Trump's criminal image — stark in its simplicity in a way that is sure to infuriate the former reality star, to whom image is everything — is a metaphor for an election in which the Republican nominee and potential next president faces 91 criminal charges in four cases.

Trump denies all wrongdoing and is innocent until proven guilty in all cases, including charges of racketeering related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

But in some ways, the photograph, taken after he surrendered to authorities on Thursday, marks the inevitable culmination of a life span that shattered the shackles surrounding the presidency and often crippling the law, more broadly, for the man who built his legend through paparazzi shots in New York gossip columns. For the one who appreciates Time magazines bearing his face, the photo, taken in Georgia, for all its insult, represents another new frontier of celebrity. But for a nation still embroiled in the tit-for-tat and anger Trump is stoking, the image — which instantly spread around the world — represents a special kind of tragedy.

And for those who curse Trump for his authoritarian and demagogic instincts, vulgarity and self-obsession, this image may offer feelings of vindication.

As for the millions of Trump supporters, who believe he is a victim of persecution, it would cement his status as a living political martyr, which underpins his bid to regain the White House. And while the Trump team has said it wants to appear defiant, the criminal photograph of the former president is likely to polarize Americans as much as his politics.

The picture also raises a question. Why would the most famous man in the world, who is constantly under the radar of Secret Service agents and who can't even leave his luxurious homes without a parade, need a criminal profile? It doesn't look like he's going to disappear all of a sudden, he's flying in a personal jet with the word "Trump" on it. It can travel anywhere on Earth and is instantly recognised. The official interpretation of the image appears to be that Trump, despite his former power and fame, should be treated under the law like any other person. If the man who had the power to destroy the world with a nuclear arsenal had been criminally photographed, like any other alleged criminal in Georgia, then justice would be equal for all.

But even if the national interest is indeed served by multiple accusations of a former president, could the humiliation now piling up backfire? Moreover, Trump has weaponized every aspect of his legal struggle to charge victimization and retaliation, which drives his political appeal.

Trump quickly posted his criminal image on his own Truth Social network, and used it to get back on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. His campaign has already begun to spread it everywhere, and it is likely that it will help raise the money he spends on his defense, turning his shame into a new kind of power, another affront to the justice system.

For any other politician, the criminal picture would be the end. And for Trump, it's a starting point. After all, he was jailed in Atlanta just 24 hours after most of his rivals for the GOP nomination raised their hands in a presidential debate in Wisconsin to say they would support him, if he became the GOP nominee.

Portraits of those who have served as presidents - often designed by management professors for propaganda purposes - have come to define the ages. Although he is no longer in office, Trump's criminal image will now enter the annals of a select group of people who made the White House home. This includes photographs of John F. Kennedy and his sons in the Oval Office that epitomized the rise of a generation of young men to the pinnacle of power. A photograph of Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in as president aboard Air Force One in Dallas in November 1963, next to later widowed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, still wearing a suit stained with the blood of her murdered husband, was specially designed to show the continuity of government in a moment of crisis. the horror. Like all great photography, it captures a defining moment and holds the power to haunt.

And the victory salute that President Richard Nixon launched from the doors of his helicopter could not hide the stigma that accompanied his final, defeated exit from the White House, after his resignation due to the Watergate scandal.

In September 2001, former President George W. Bush stood on a pile of charred wreckage at Ground Zero in New York with a megaphone, reflecting the wounded nation's shift from grief to resolution, after the worst terrorist attack ever.

Four years later, a photo of him gazing from Air Force One on a flooded Gulf Coast summed up his pilot's carelessness after Hurricane Katrina. For posterity, such images define a chapter in the national tradition when all the details fade together.

The same is true of Trump's criminal image.

A face known to the whole world, frozen in shame. An apocalyptic American era captured at the click of a button.