Alvin Bragg threw a real boomerang into Donald Trump’s plans yesterday, make no mistake. Trump may be the first person ever arrested on a felony charge to not have a mugshot taken — much less to complain about it. TIME Magazine ran a piece yesterday on the arraignment wherein it described the indictment as “wildly lucrative” for Trump, detailing how he made an immediate $4 million since the news broke last week and now that figure, according to Trump world, has risen to $7 million. Believe what you will.
The next step was to get the “rocket fuel” of the mugshot. Alan Dershowitz, told Newsmax Thursday night that the mug shot “might be used as a campaign poster for his presidential campaign.” “He will be mug-shot and fingerprinted,” Dershowitz said. “There’s really no way around that.” Newsmax is salivating for this image, as is Right Wing Broadcasting Network, all of them.
Dershowitz was wrong. Alvin Bragg decided yesterday, according to Yahoo News, that there would be no mugshot. Now in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Politico Playbook is reporting that there is “contradictory information” about the mugshot because TIME said, “Trump’s supporters are already prepared to lionize the image.” “We’ll have a mug shot. For the record, it will be the most manly, most masculine, most handsome mug shot of all time,” joked Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House spokesman who still speaks regularly with Trump. “I can say that definitely, before having even seen it.”
Both of these articles broke yesterday. So do you want to believe Hogan Gidley, or do you want to believe Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News? I’m with Isikoff. I think that both Alvin Bragg and the judge, Juan Merchan, decided to take the wind out of Trump’s sails and de-escalate the circus atmosphere, Bragg with the no mugshot decision and Merchan with the no cameras. No audience, no show.
These are serious blows. Trump has been depending on the circus atmosphere and God knows he needs the money from the mugshot. More from Politico:
Here’s what we do know:
— Merchan ruled last night that no cameras will be allowed in the courtroom aside from a brief still-photo spray before the arraignment begins. That’s a slight departure from normal no-cameras-period procedures, but a far cry from the live video coverage that media outlets requested. It’s unclear, Erica said, whether cameras will be allowed as usual in the courthouse hallways.
— At 10:30 a.m., the “Rally for Trump” organized by Greene and the New York Young Republican Club begins at Collect Pond Park across from the courthouse.
— After Trump’s 11 a.m. surrender, Erica tells us, he will move to the internally connected courthouse, likely without going outside. Again, it’s unclear what access the media will have, but this is the closest thing to a “perp walk” that the public will see.
Reports suggest Trump is going to play the moment up. As one Trump world figure told Rolling Stone’s Jana Winter, “It’s kind of a Jesus Christ thing. He is saying, ‘I’m absorbing all this pain from all around from everywhere so you don’t have to.’”
— At 2:15 p.m., we expect Trump to plead not guilty. While arraignments are typically short and defendants rarely speak, that’s no guarantee in this case. Around this time, the indictment will be unsealed and released to the public, if it hasn’t been already.
— At 3:30 p.m., Bragg will hold a news conference, speaking about the indictment for the first time.
— At 8:15 p.m., after flying back to Palm Beach, Trump will deliver remarks at Mar-a-Lago. Per Meridith, lawmakers and other allies have been invited to attend, with grassroots supporters expected alongside such vocal Trump defenders as Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.).
Make no mistake, the lack of the mugshot is a blow to Trump. He needs this mugshot. He wants to use it on posters, mugs, teeshirts, any and everything. Alvin Bragg has just hit Trump where it hurts the most, straight in the pocketbook. Expect Trump, child that he is, to lash out and demonize Bragg to the hilt.
[Image by Michael Santiago, Getty]
Can’t wait to hear tonight’s spin from Trump. See, there was no mug shot which means I have done nothing wrong and they know it,so no picture =no crime.
You should be writing political commentary. You have figured it out in advance.
I appreciate the compliment. My mother, who was born on a farm in Missouri, without electricity or running water, took me to my first political event. An ERA rally when I was 10. She was the one who taught me to look at what they do not just what they say. I have been focused ever since. I really appreciate your website.
Yeah that’s the world I grew up in. Little different but you get the idea. Got my political education in a pretty solid democratic small school system. It was around fifth or sixth grade we got running water. There was good and bad. We had a rich people click. I wasn’t in it. But I made them regret that. I have since moved on.
What is the purpose of a mug shot? I always thought it was an identification thing. I cannot see where an identification picture is necessary for TFG. By not doing one, they would cut off one part of former guy’s whine-fest/fund raising. Not that he doesn’t do both all the effing time.
I’ve been palm printed by the FBI…he’s a whiny little entitled bitch. Fact. By the way that was 45 years ago and I’m still roaming about. Means zilch. ONLY if he goes to jail will all this hoopla mean anything. We’ve let criminal presidents walk many times before. Until this child killer goes to jail, all of this will be another production of smoke and mirrors in America. Fact.
‘We’ll have a mug shot. For the record, it will be the most manly, most masculine, most handsome mug shot of all time,” joked Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House spokesman who still speaks regularly with Trump. “I can say that definitely, before having even seen it.”’
WTF is with these people viewing that obese, sweaty blob that makes Jabba the Hut look fit & trim, as super manly? What alpha male belly aches or has a persecution complex that makes Nicxons issues w/ the Kennedy’s look perfectly healthy? What alpha male brags for 5 years about ‘acing’ a test only Alzheimer patients fail? He plays the victim card about every damned thing. What is alpha males about that? These preppie kave about as much insight as a bag of s dogshit, clearly, but I absolutely can’t wrap my head around how that are that fat fuck as anything but a whining fat fuck. Do they subconsciously recognize that he, like them, is drowning in feelings of inadequacy? Or is this just part of their intense investment in the idea that tantrumthinskin would bring about an era where white Christian men would immediately and instantly get icon status and that they alone would dictate the new American culture? (Where, apparently, incels are manly creatures and anyone capable of taking personal responsibility is an outcast?
I’d like confirmation that a DNA swab was taken. ‘Cause wouldn’t Jean Carroll be able to subpoena that swab for the evidence *rump refused to provide?
Ivan…reminds me of the scene in Dr. Strangelove where the president and his generals move from trying to stop a nuclear Holocaust to discussing hiding out in mineshafts for a hundred years. They get all excited about having many women each, and stopping a mineshaft gap with the Russians. Toxic fifties male fantasies all around. My bomb is bigger than your bomb. Hell, the whole idea of MAD,(mutually assured destruction), is psychotic and truly an evil sickness. A nation of distracted, obese consumers, would pick one of their own as ‘superman’. He validates them.
I know I have jumped ahead here but MTG is properly pissed and I love it. This is one of the reasons that trumpets erred this indictment whether it goes anywhere or not. The circus has. And the Barkee is in trouble. He gets nothing. No picture no courtroom circus nothing.