The New York Post, a newspaper owned by conservative president Rupert Murdoch, published its front page on Friday, with the photo taking up the entire page. Untitled.
Conversely, the New York Times, a newspaper classified as left-wing in America, reduced the photograph to the size of a medallion to illustrate an article on the front page, but it shared the death of the leader. Russian Group Wagner, Evgeny Prigogine.
– Tortured “Hero” –
As soon as the legal policy was made public, Donald Trump’s supporters cast the former Republican president as a “hero” victim of persecution and Joe Biden as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by Democrats.
The current president has been careful not to comment on the four impeachments of his predecessor. But when asked by a journalist on Friday if he had seen the famous photo, Joe Biden replied with a smile: “I saw it on television. A beautiful boy”.
For its part, the “Trump 2024” campaign team immediately navigated the “mug shot” effect by launching an appeal to every American “patriot.”
The report says “the shadow government is trying to frame President Trump as public enemy number one to dare challenge Washington’s corrupt ruling class” and “an official court photo shows him guilty in the eyes of the entire world.”
But “President Trump will never give up on our mission to make America great again,” hammered his supporters, who sought a $47 contribution to a new fundraiser from the Republican nominee ahead of his party’s 2024 primary election.
Alternatively, everyone is given a white t-shirt with a signature photo printed on it that says “Never Surrender!” (“Never Surrender!”).
– X again –
The photo also marks Donald Trump’s return to Twitter, which billionaire Elon Musk bought and renamed X.
His last post on this platform, once his favorite communication channel, was on January 8, 2021. He was banned from the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021 after his supporters attacked it.
This ban has since been lifted.
So Donald Jr., one of Trump’s sons, retweeted his father’s “mug shot” with a threatening message: “Hey, shadow state — it’s coming to get you. Jan. 20, 2025,” the president-elect’s inauguration on Nov. 5, 2024.
To the right of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, is classified, “Photograph of our President (…) who will win the 2024 presidential election”.
“The Kubrick Vision”
This cliché is diverted, positive or hostile, in humorous montages and memes on social networks.
Moviegoers see the menacing face of Donald Trump as a nod to the famous “Kubrick Stare” (“Kubrick Stare”), named after the British director Stanley Kubrick: the character looks at the viewer with a frightening expression, tilting his head forward and fixing the camera. Malcolm McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange”.
Daniel Binns, the British boss of the New York political marketing agency Interbrand, said the diversion of the “mug shot” makes it the “most powerful” derivative of the Trump “brand.”
According to this expert, the former president has a form of political “marketing genius”. Donald Trump “can take everything that’s been said, everything he’s been accused of and make it fit the story he wants to tell”.
For Miro Cernetig, who bills himself at X as a creator and developer of brands for companies, the “marketing stunt is crude, even if it’s crude.”
“Trump knows better than anyone how to use the media and controversy to monetize his brand (…) to make a +mug shot+ instantly making millions of dollars.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”