Monthly Archives: August 2023

The first time I encountered Donald Trump was on my TV screen. It was 1994, and it happened in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smiths popular coming-of-age sitcom about class assimilation that ran on NBC for six seasons. There was nothing particularly memorable about the episode or Trumps appearance in ithe played a relatively tame version of himselfbut for much of my early life this was how I made sense of him. As a real estate dealmaker. As a reality TV star. And eventually as 45th president of the United States. Then and now, Trump best communicates through the medium of images.

The latest transmission from his visual onslaught began making rounds on the internet last Thursday, just past the 8 pm Eastern primetime hour, when Georgias Fulton County Jail released his mug shot to the public. It has since been described as one of the most historic images of our time. And rightly so. There is no parallel for it in our visual lexicon. It is, in every sense of the phrase, a Trump original.

Along with 18 codefendantswhich include his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, a DOJ official, a stable of attorneys, a publicist, and a pastorTrump is being charged as the lead actor in a conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election in Georgia, where the law requires a mug shot be taken for a felony offense. Like most images of Trump, this one does not pretend to soften its collision. His grimace is absolute aggressionall venom and intimidation.

On its own, the photograph is nothing to call home about. Were it not infused with so much meaninghis is the first presidential mug shot in historyit would barely register as remarkable. (In fairness, he set the bar pretty high during his presidency. Remember the orb?!) But its aesthetics are classic Trump. The furrowed brows. The chromatic cloud of hair. That unyielding glare, his eyes like darts, in search of a target. The camera struggles to capture proper light, but that feels strangely fitting: His darkness is in full view.

Trump is a savvy counterprogrammer, a showman with a taste for political rebranding. He understands that images endure, the imprint they can leave. He understands that sometimes the image is the message. It's why, in the hours following his release, he used his mug shot as an opportunity to raise funds by posting it on X (formerly Twitter). Never surrender, he tweeted, without a pinch of irony, after surrendering. The photo has raised more than $7 million since last week, according to Politico. This is all part of the Trump allure. The amphitheater of social media is where he excels, as meme and messiah.

Online, Trump exists across an explosive vernacular of media. His identity is a patchwork of zany interview clips, Photoshopped images, and antagonistic sound bites meant to go viral. It is why the story of Donald Trump will always be a story best told in pictures. Pictures that are brash and erratic, unfading and unpredictable. And as the front-runner for the Republican nomination, his mug shot is a picture that demands interrogation. It demands that many of us continue to challenge the image of America he is working to bring back. We should not look away. We can't afford to look away. This time, Trump should not be allowed to so easily evade the lens of reality.

That, more than anything, is what the mug shot makes plain. Whether Georgia district attorney Fanni Willis can make her case or not, the mug shot implies an air of criminality. Some will call that implication into question. Theyll say its unfair. Theyll again label it a witch hunt. For others, it validates what they already believe to be true: In his loss to President Joe Biden, he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and now he must go on trial to prove otherwise. Trump and his codefendants are set to be arraigned next week. The court of public opinion will be watching.

Read the original:

Donald Trump's Mug Shot Will Be His Most Enduring Meme - WIRED

In a new social media trend, some people on X, formerly known as Twitter, have superimposed their own faces onto former President Donald Trump's mug shot. Juliana Kim hide caption

In a new social media trend, some people on X, formerly known as Twitter, have superimposed their own faces onto former President Donald Trump's mug shot.

When Fulton County Jail released Donald Trump's mug shot last week, the former president not only embraced it but so did some of his supporters.

Hours after the photo was made public, Trump's booking photo was plastered on T-shirts, mugs and koozies. It inspired the latest addition to Trump's campaign. And it even triggered a viral social media challenge where Trump supporters superimposed their face onto his photo.

Typically, mug shots are associated with shame and humiliation. But for Trump and a pocket of his fan base, his mug shot the first ever of an American president was a badge of honor.

"There's nothing like the scale of what's going on a politician of Trump's stature who's using the scandal to such political benefit," said William Howell, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

Trump, who faces four separate indictments, took his first mug shot on Thursday after surrendering in Atlanta. He faces 13 felony counts in Georgia related to efforts to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election result.

This booking photo provided by Fulton County Sheriff's Office shows former President Donald Trump on Thursday after he surrendered and was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. AP hide caption

This booking photo provided by Fulton County Sheriff's Office shows former President Donald Trump on Thursday after he surrendered and was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.

Before the release of Trump's mug shot, police departments and newsrooms had already been debating the ethics around publishing such photos.

For most people, mug shots are taken during one of the worst days of their lives. Because of the internet, those images can now last forever unless someone pays to get them taken down.

Arrest images are also used disproportionately by race. In a 2021 study, Global Strategy Group found media coverage in the U.S. used mug shots in 45% of cases involving Black defendants while only 8% of cases involving white defendants.

"Folks without power, they're criminalized. They don't have much say about it. But folks who have a lot of power get to redefine that picture," said Mary Angela Bock, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

According to Bock, elected officials have the power and resources to largely be immune to the life-altering effect of mug shots. Take former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. In 2014, Perry was booked and photographed in jail after accusations that he abused his power as governor. But the incident turned into a political rally and later, his super PAC sold T-shirts with his mug shot for $25.

"Politicians know it's not about the picture, it's about the moment. So they can change the meaning of that moment to suit their needs," said Bock, who has conducted research on Perry's mug shot and its aftermath.

Trump has long portrayed himself as an anti-hero an outsider willing to call out the failures and corruption in Washington. To him and some of his supporters, the indictments and mug shot underscore their belief that he has been treated unfairly, according to Howell.

"The narrative he's spinning now is that the justice system has been weaponized against him by his political opponent and the government has been hijacked by people who don't believe in the rule of law," he said.

That's why Howell anticipates Trump's mug shot may help him during his presidential race at least financially. In fact, his campaign has already made money selling merchandise with a fake Trump mug shot.

"He has long held up attacks directed at him as a reason for people within his party to give financially to his cause," Howell said.

On Thursday, Trump posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in more than two years to share his mugshot along with the words "NEVER SURRENDER."

Shortly after, some of his supporters followed suit and posted fake mug shots with their own faces on the social media site. Among those who participated was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

According to Howell, the trend not only represents solidarity, but their level of commitment to Trump, regardless of circumstances.

"This isn't just that they're going to stand with him through fires. It's that the fires are only going to strengthen the bonds between them," he said.

Read the original post:

Trump's mug shot inspires viral trend: supporters creating their own ... - NPR

On the heels of Donald Trump's fourth indictment and amid mounting legal troubles, the former president's family remains unconcerned about the prospect of him having to serve any jail time.

"Everyone knows hes not going to jail. No one is worried," a source tells PEOPLE of Trump's closest family members.

That reportedly includes daughter Ivanka Trump, who has largely stayed silent amid the controversy but isn't hiding away.

"She's all over the place down here, always out and about," the source tells PEOPLE of Ivanka, 41, and her husband Jared Kushner's life in Miami.

"They're definitely not hiding. They live right on the beach," the source adds of the luxury high-rise condominium complex the couple calls home as they continue construction on a nearby $24 million waterfront property. "They seem like they don't have a care in the world."

Ivanka's 29-year-old sister Tiffany who married husband Michael Boulos last November lives in nearby Palm Beach and the two sisters have grown closer in recent years, largely due to the shared memories from their father's time in the White House.

They used to not get along but now theyre bonded over their shared trauma of being the most hated kids in America," the source says. "Going through that experience with their dad as president was awful for them, they hated it. People were so cruel. Especially about Tiffanys looks."

These days, the women are staying out of the political fray, choosing instead to relax in South Florida.

"They want nothing to do with politics this time around, they never want to go through that again. They just want to chill in Miami," the source adds.

Ivanka has publicly announced that she will not be involved with her father's 2024 campaign, issuing a statement the same night he announced his latest campaign.

"I love my father very much," Ivanka said in her statement. "This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family."

She continued: "I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena."

Never miss a story sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

And while she's remained largely out of the spotlight since leaving the White House in 2021, Ivanka did speak out after her father's first indictment in March, after prosecutors alleged he paid hush money to adult film starStormy Danielswhile he was the presidential candidate in 2016.

Ivanka broke her silence on the charges via a short message on her Instagram Story, writing: "I love my father, and I love my country. Today, I am pained for both. I appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern."

The former president has been indicted four times since leaving office. The latest charges bring him toa total of 91 criminal countshe's faced this year between four investigations, several of which come with recommended prison time.

Earlier this month, he was indicted in a fourth criminal investigation, for which he is accused of violating the Georgia RICO Act classified a step above felony, as a "serious felony." If convicted, Trump would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.

Read more from the original source:

Donald Trump's Family 'Isn't Worried' About Him Going to Jail ... - PEOPLE

Photo: Bloomberg/Getty/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ron DeSantis makes a big show of picking on mask-wearing children, teachers, and LGBTQ+ people, but hes repeatedly proven himself no match for Donald Trump, the biggest bully U.S. politics has ever seen. Despite predictions that the Republican presidential primary would quickly turn into a two-way race between the Florida men, Trump has managed to maintain a huge polling lead over DeSantis, partly through the use of schoolyard intimidation tactics. Trump saddled DeSantis with a variety of juvenile nicknames, refused to invite him to major events, insulted his looks behind his back, and relentlessly mocked him for the weird way he (allegedly) eats pudding.

Now Trump is trying to start a rumor that DeSantis is quitting the presidential race, and he isnt even being sneaky about it. On Monday, Trump shared some hot gossip with his 6.4 million Truth Social followers, claiming rumors are strong in political circles that DeSantis would soon abandon his presidential campaign to run for the Senate against fellow Republican Rick Scott, who is up for reelection in 2024:

As FloridaPolitics.com pointed out, this rumor (which Trump originally misspelled as roomer) doesnt really make any sense:

DeSantis has tried to run for Senate once. After his second term in the House, he launched a bid forMarco RubiosSenate seat, but abandoned it to run for re-election once Rubio decided he wanted another term.

If DeSantis were to run against Scott and win, he would leave the Governors Office midway through his second term. While thats understandable for a run for President, there is little indication that DeSantis has an interest in leaving an executive position to be one of 100 Senators.

It seems highly unlikely that DeSantis would give up the last two years of his term as governor to primary a GOP senator. But of course, Trumps intent probably wasnt to share plausible information but to add to the narrative that the DeSantis campaign is flailing. (While DeSantis has been plagued by bad news and he isnt closing the gap with Trump, his poll numbers have not absolutely crashed.)

DeSantis has never been good at neutralizing Trumps bullying; his standard, cringey response to Trumps nicknames is that he can call him whatever he wants just as long as you also call me a winner. The campaigns response to Trumps rumor was similarly uninspiring. Bryan Griffin, a press secretary for DeSantiss campaign, posted on X:

This is fake news. Clearly, Donald Trump and his army of consultants are panicked about @RonDeSantis winning debate performance and the strong momentum that has followed. They know this is a two-man race, and we will carry this on to a win in this presidential primary. Instead of pushing fake news from New Jersey, the Trump campaign should be focused on getting their candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa and on the debate stage before its too late.

DeSantis didnt clearly win the first GOP debate, the primary is not a two-man race, and fake news is Trumps line. The governor should probably work on his tactics for countering Trump, but there may not be much time. A lot of people are saying he wont be in the race for long.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

Originally posted here:

Donald Trump Starts Rumor That Ron DeSantis Is Dropping Out - New York Magazine

Donald Trumps attempts to make political hay out of his myriad legal woes continued on Monday when he shared a fake mug shot of President Joe Biden on his Truth Social platform.

The former president ReTruthed a doctored image of Biden, next to the Fulton County Sheriffs Office badge, with the caption: The Mugshot America Deserves.

Trump also shared other edited images of his own mug shot, which was released following his arrest in Georgia on Thursday for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in the state:

Trump has predictably sought to raise money off the back of his mug shot, reportedly receiving more than $7 million in campaign donations in the first two days after its release.

The picture itself sparked a meme.

It also prompted Fox News Jesse Watters to say Trump looked good and hard.

Biden, meanwhile, had a deadpan response when asked about the image.

I did see it on television, the president told reporters. Handsome guy. Wonderful guy.

Go here to see the original:

Donald Trump Trolls Joe Biden In Pettiest Possible Way - Yahoo News

Donald Trump has made another claim and this time he didnt have to beg for his total to be changed.

The former president posted on Truth Social that he won the Senior Club Championship at his club in Bedminster, N.J. Trump, who apparently was able to dig out his golf shirts that were mixed among the classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago, claims he shot a 67, but did not say if that was in a practice round or even what day he recorded that score.

I am pleased to report, for those that care, that I just won the Senior Club Championship (must be over 50 years old!) at Bedminster (Trump National Golf Club), shooting a round of 67, the 77-year-old Palm Beach resident posted. Now, some people will think that sounds low, but there is no hanky/lanky. Many people watch, plus I am surrounded by Secret Service Agents. Not much you can do even if you wanted to, and I dont.

Trump concluded his post: For some reason, I am just a good golfer/athlete I have won many Club Championships, and it is always a great honor!

The question is which number is larger: Trumps club championships or the 91 felony counts he faces in four jurisdictions.

]In January, Trump announced he won the Senior Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, despite not playing the first round of the tournament.

Members arrived the second day surprised to see Trump with a five-point lead using the Modified Stableford method. But Trump never played the first round as he was attending a funeral in North Carolina.

Trump told tournament organizers he played a strong round on the course Thursday, two days before the tournament started, and decided that would count as his Saturday score for the club championship. That score was five points better than any competitor posted during Saturdays first round.

Trumps latest claim comes two days after he became the first former president with a mug shot. He was booked in Fulton County stemming from his attempt to overturn Georgias 2020 election results by asking Georgias secretary of state to find 11,780 votes.

Trump had good reason to vehemently defend himself against hanky/lanky and insist people watch. Not only was he the subject of a 2019 book by sportswriter Rick Reilly: Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump; a video of Trump shanking a pitch shot at his club in Los Angeles went viral in June.

LIV Golf will hold three events on Trump properties this year, including Bedminster, which was played this month. Of the 144 rounds played at Bedminster by LIV golfers, six shot 67 or lower.

Trump typically plays in the pro-am leading up to LIV events he hosts, including the tournament at Doral. In October, after playing nine holes with Jupiters Brooks Koepka, Trump praised his game Trumps, not Koepkas.

I hit it straight, I hit good drives, I hit good irons, he said.

Original post:

Donald Trump claims he won another club championship: 'For some ... - Golfweek

Donald Trump's family "knows hes not going to jail".

The 77-year-old billionaire has been accused of trying to overturn his electoral defeat in 2020 - but his family aren't worried at all about the prospect of him going to jail.

A source told PEOPLE: "Everyone knows hes not going to jail. No one is worried."

Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have largely remained silent amid the controversy.

However, the married couple aren't hiding away from the drama, either, and they have been regularly spotted together in Miami in recent weeks.

The insider shared: "She's all over the place down here, always out and about.

"They're definitely not hiding. They live right on the beach. They seem like they don't have a care in the world."

Earlier this month, Trump claimed to be the victim of a political "witch hunt".

The billionaire businessman - who served as the 45th US President between 2017 and 2021 - took to social media to rubbish the allegations and to also question the integrity of the legal process.

Trump - who still plans to run in the next US election - wrote on Truth Social at the time: "So, the Witch Hunt continues! 19 people Indicated tonight, including the former President of the United States, me, by an out of control and very corrupt District Attorney who campaigned and raised money on, I will get Trump. And what about those Indictment Documents put out today, long before the Grand Jury even voted, and then quickly withdrawn? Sounds Rigged to me! Why didnt they Indict 2.5 years ago? Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign. Witch Hunt! (sic)"

Read more from the original source:

Donald Trump's family 'aren't worried he'll go to jail' - The Daily Herald

Latest News on the Trump Indictment

If ever there was a moment in American history that should prompt the federal courts to change their outdated policy, surely the prosecution of a former president for attempting to overturn the will of the voters would be it. The time has come for the federal court system to catch-up with the times many state courts already broadcast live trial proceedings.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, which sets administrative rules and policy guidelines for federal judicial proceedings, has the power to change the rules and allow cameras in federal court rooms. When the conference convenes in September, it should decide to allow Trumps trials and related federal court proceedings to be broadcast in real-time. Notably, both Trumps lawyer and a growing number of congressional Democrats agree.

I suspect my former colleagues at the Justice Department are hesitant to depart from existing norms that date back to 1946 because they have been largely effective in keeping decorum in federal court rooms and protecting witnesses, jurors and judges.

But these are extraordinary times, and extraordinary times demand extraordinary transparency. At the least, the Justice Department should inform the Judicial Conference that it does not oppose efforts to broadcast Trumps trials live.

The bright light of transparency into both of Trumps federal cases would communicate an unfiltered and unbiased accounting of trial events, and the strong evidence the government has alleged in its indictments. Equally important, it would show Americans and the world what it means to pursue justice without regard to partisan politics. We saw a glimpse of this process play out in Fulton County, Ga., a state case when a grand jury there handed up its indictments earlier this month. With the 2024 presidential election in full swing, misinformation running rampant, and trust in American institutions at an all-time low, keeping the facts and evidence front and center would be in service to our democracy.

Americans have already watched high-profile trials at the state and local levels for decades from the trials of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to the final verdict of former NFL star O.J. Simpson. Over a six-week period last year, Johnny Depps defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard amassed a total of almost 84 million hours watched by Americans. Live broadcast access to these trials encouraged a highly divided and engaged public to view evidence and facts free from editorializing, and to better accept the verdicts. Similarly, the public may be more accepting of the outcome whatever it is in Trumps federal trials if they are held transparently.

If the Judicial Conference fails to act, Congress should step in. There is already bipartisan legislation by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that would give federal judges the discretion to decide the appropriateness of recordings being broadcast live from their courtrooms. That discretion could include allowing just live audio streams of federal court proceedings.

While not as compelling as live camera footage, audio would still inform the public and could go further to help protect government witnesses, an absolute necessity given the former presidents incendiary rhetoric and attacks that have already endangered the lives of elected officials and even poll-working volunteers. Notably, the Supreme Court allows live audio streams of its oral arguments. And as then-Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Attorney General Merrick Garland voted in favor of allowing audio recordings of oral arguments in federal court to be published.

The first federal trials of an American president will be pivotal moments in our nations 246-year history. By permitting live recordings of trial proceedings to be aired in real time, we uphold the values of democracy, foster an informed citizenry and reinforce trust in the justice system and its outcomes. It is through transparency that we will preserve the integrity of our nation.

Continued here:

Opinion | If You Want the Public's Trust, Broadcast the Trump Trials - POLITICO

A little over a week after a prosecutor in Georgia indicted former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn the results of the states 2020 presidential election, Republicans said they will use a new law to remove her from office.

In May, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the law that created a new commission of political appointees with the power to remove and discipline elected prosecutors over decisions or policies not to prosecute certain offenses. The law seeks to limit or restrict reform-minded prosecutors. In the case of Fulton County which includes Atlanta though, District Attorney Fani Willis is not even known as much of a reformer. Instead, Republican lawmakers set their sights on Willis for another reason: prosecuting the wrong person.

In a Facebook post Monday, state Sen. Clint Dixon, a Republican, said Willis was indicting Trump because of an unabashed goal to become some sort of leftist celebrity and should be investigated for using the justice system against her political opponents.

The Public Rights Project, a nonprofit that worked on a lawsuit by a bipartisan group of Georgia prosecutors against the bill earlier this month, filed a preliminary injunction against the commission on Thursday seeking to stop it from initiating any disciplinary or removal proceedings against a prosecutor while litigation over the law is pending.

The original reasoning for the commission was to go after DAs who supposedly werent prosecuting enough, said Jill Habig, executive director of the Public Rights Project. Its not only about not prosecuting enough, its also about prosecuting too much if the defendant is the wrong one from the perspective of the partisan officials who are creating and staffing this commission.

Habig, who said her group disagrees with that characterization of prosecutors targeted by the bill, said the injunction to block Williss ouster was necessary to preserve the will of voters who elected prosecutors across the state. (The commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The new Georgia law is one of close to 40 similar measures introduced in a third of states since 2017 that target prosecutors implementing popular criminal justice reforms. The recent efforts to subvert the authority of elected prosecutors have been largely driven by white Republican lawmakers in gerrymandered states against Black Democrats in the liberal islands of cities, Habig said.

Over a third of states have considered legislation to retaliate against local prosecutors for pursuing policies that they disagree with, Habig said. This is part of a national trend that were seeing of predominantly white, often gerrymandered state legislatures targeting prosecutors often Black prosecutors, and often prosecutors elected in cities and counties with larger Black and brown populations. So the partisan and racial nature of this retaliation I think is something thats really important to highlight.

The remarks by Dixon, the state senator, were the first shot across the bow, Habig said: The drumbeat is just starting.

Another Republican state lawmaker called last week for a special legislative session to investigate Willis, and others are drafting a statement to condemn her for indicting Trump, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. (Dixon and Kemp did not respond to a request for comment.)

Beyond the focus on Willis for indicting Trump, Habig said, the law is already having a pernicious effect on prosecutors across the state. There have already been changes in how DAs talk about their priorities and the kinds of cases that they think are most important, changes in the traction to build criminal justice reform efforts in the state, she said.

Georgia attorneys said they were afraid to discuss basic parts of their work for fear of being targeted for removal under the law. I have concern that some of my policies and approaches could be interpreted as a stated policy that could give rise to a complaint, investigation, and discipline, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston wrote in an affidavit supporting the motion for a preliminary injunction. Boston said her commitment to reforms like higher evidentiary standards and pretrial diversion guidelines could all put a target on her back.

In anotheraffidavit, the director of public policy and communications at the Savannah nonprofit Deep Center said the organization had been working with a local prosecutor to implement reforms, but, after the passage of the law, the prosecutor balked.

Deep Centers Coco Guthrie-Papy said her organization had worked with Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones to develop plans to address the backlog of people awaiting trial and sentencing in the county jail, start a pre-arrest diversion program, and alleviate certain court fines and fees. Joness office embraced those efforts at first but soon became more reluctant, Guthrie-Papy said.

Guthrie-Papy said her organization started to see changes as the bill started moving through the legislature. Its one of those things thats never spoken out loud, but you can see peoples behavior start to change because people get scared. And fear is an incredibly powerful emotion, she said. It was very clear to us that all of this work that we had sort of been trying to push through the DAs office was going to come to a halt.(Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Before the push for the new law, some prosecutors in Georgia, in response to calls from local communities, began to narrow their focus to the most dire crimes, Guthrie-Papy said. She pointed to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 as a catalyst for the election of more reform-minded DAs, but the new law put those prosecutors in a bind.

At the end of the day, she said, what it has really done is disrupted the legacy of bipartisan reform that has happened in Georgia, which has been really, really hard to get to.

The rest is here:

Georgia GOP Gears Up to Remove Atlanta Prosecutor Who Indicted ... - The Intercept

One by one, some with a little hesitation, six hands went up on the debate stage Wednesday night when the eight Republican candidates answered whether they would support Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination if he was a convicted criminal. Hand raising is a juvenile and reductive exercise in any political debate, but its worth unpacking this moment, which provides clarity into the damage that Mr. Trump has inflicted on his own party.

Six people who themselves want to lead their country think it would be fine to have a felon as the nations chief executive. Six candidates apparently would not be bothered to see Mr. Trump stand on the Capitol steps in 2025 and swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, no matter if he had been convicted by a jury of violating that Constitution by (take your choice) conspiracy to obstruct justice, lying to the U.S. government, racketeering and conspiracy to commit forgery or conspiracy to defraud the United States. (The Fox News hosts, trying to race through the evenings brief Trump section so they could move on to more important questions about invading Mexico, didnt dwell on which charges qualified for a hand raise. So any of them would do.)

There was never any question that Vivek Ramaswamys hand would shoot up first. But even Nikki Haley, though she generally tried to position herself as a reasonable alternative to Mr. Ramaswamys earsplitting drivel, raised her hand. So did Ron DeSantis, after peeking around to see what the other kids were doing. And Mike Pences decision to join this group, while proudly boasting of his constitutional bona fides for simply doing his job on Jan. 6, 2021, demonstrated the cognitive dissonance at the heart of his candidacy.

Only Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson demonstrated some respect for the rule of law by opposing the election of a criminal. Mr. Hutchinson said Mr. Trump was morally disqualified from being president because of what happened on Jan. 6 and made the interesting argument that he may also be legally disqualified under the 14th Amendment for inciting an insurrection. Mr. Christie said the country had to stop normalizing Mr. Trumps conduct, which he said was beneath the office of president. Though he was accused by Mr. Ramaswamy of the base crime of trying to become an MSNBC contributor, Mr. Christie managed to say something that sounded somewhat forthright: I am not going to bow to anyone when we have a president of the United States who disrespects the Constitution. For this, Mr. Christie and Mr. Hutchinson were both roundly booed.

Its important to understand the implications of what those six candidates were saying, particularly after watching Mr. Trump turn himself in on Thursday at the Fulton County Jail to be booked on the racketeering charge and 12 other counts of breaking Georgia law. Only Mr. Ramaswamy was willing to utter the words, amid his talk about shutting down the F.B.I. and instantly pardoning Mr. Trump, saying Mr. Trump was charged with politicized indictments and calling the justice system corrupt.

We cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents, he said. It is wrong. We have to end the weaponization of justice in this country.

This is the argument that Mr. Trump has been making for months, of course, but when more than three-fourths of the main players in the Republican field support it, it essentially means that a major political party has given up on the nations criminal justice system. The party thinks indictments are weapons and prosecutors are purely political agents. The rule of law hardly has a perfect record in this country, and its inequities are many, but when a political party says that the criminal justice system has become politicized and that the indictments of three prosecutors in separate jurisdictions are meaningless, it begins to dissolve the countrys bedrock.

Mr. Pence said he wished that issues surrounding the 2020 election had not risen to criminal proceedings, but they did, because two prosecutors chose to do their jobs faithfully, just as the former vice president did on Jan. 6. He piously told the audience that his oath of office in 2017 was made not just to the American people but also to my heavenly father. But any religious moralizing about that oath was debased when he said he was willing to support as president a man whose mug shot was taken Thursday at a squalid jail in Atlanta, who was fingerprinted and had his body dimensions listed and released on bond like one of the shoplifters and car burglars who were also processed in the jail the same day.

Apparently Thursdays proceedings were a meaningless farce to Mr. Pence, Ms. Haley and the other four. But most Americans still have enough respect for the legal system that they dont consider being booked a particularly frivolous or rebellious act. The charges against Mr. Trump are not for civil disobedience or crimes of conscience; they accuse him of grave felonies committed entirely for the corrupt purpose of holding on to power.

Being booked and mug-shotted for these kinds of crimes represents degradation to most people, despite the presumption of innocence that still applies at the trial level. How does a parent explain to a child why a man in a mug shot might be the nations next leader? That should be a very difficult conversation, unless you happen to be a Republican candidate for president.

Source photographs by Erik S Lesser/EPA, via Shutterstock and Fulton County Sheriffs Office, via Associated Press.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

View post:

Opinion | Raising a Hand for the Man in the Mug Shot - The New York Times