At the Fulton County Jail, the opening bell for the 2024 presidential race was rung. This was where Trump surrendered to authorities and had his mug shot taken, on charges of attempting to steal the 2020 election.
Donald Trump arrived at the Fulton County Jail a little after 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, ready for his mug shot. Hundreds of sweaty onlookers had converged on the press-and-protester pen on Rice Street in Atlanta — 94-degree heat, flies attacking from every angle — to witness Trump’s arrest and share how they felt about it. “They are fucking your children at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!” screamed one barefoot woman wearing a red dress. Trump did not address the reporters or supporters gathered outside —several of whom had waited nearly 12 hours to see him and were drenched and visibly exhausted — and left 20 minutes later using the same back door he’d entered.
Those 20 minutes, inauspicious as they may have felt on the ground, turned out to be the bell sounding the opening of the 2024 presidential race. The queasy thrill that American audiences get from the sensationalistic crime coverage that plagues our evening news crescendoed to a fever pitch at the sight of Trump’s mug shot, all golden hair and glowering eyebrows — surely an instant contender for one of the most widely circulated images in history. The former president then returned to Twitter for the first time since the January 6 insurrection, proudly posting the mug shot that he was now using as a symbol of defiance. The race — against Joe Biden, against his numerous prosecutors, against the time it would take the legal process to run its course — was on.
https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023
The circus at the Fulton County Jail was a testament to how thoroughly Trump still has America in his thrall. His supporters were in the majority, in their dizzying array of Trump-branded merch, and ranged from disarmingly polite (“Excuse me, so sorry, mind if I squeeze past?”) to the rabid (“Obama is a PEDOPHILE!”).
