‘Trump tried to emulate Churchill’s famous expression in mugshot’
Former president aiming for a stern, cornered but defiant look, says historian
Donald Trump attempted to channel the defiance of Winston Churchill when he suffered the indignity of becoming the first past or present US president to have his mugshot taken by the police, according to historians.
Glaring into the police photographer’s camera with his face tilted down, Trump, who has previously compared his leadership to that of Churchill, may have been trying to copy the famous 1941 portrait of Britain’s Prime Minister known as “the Roaring Lion”.
Churchill was photographed after addressing the Canadian Parliament, his stern expression captured moments after photographer Yousuf Karsh removed a cigar from his mouth.
Posting the “Roaring Lion” photograph on social media website X, formerly called Twitter, British historian and BBC presenter Simon Schama said: “This is what Trump was aiming for – not sure it worked.”
However, historian and author Thomas Weber, Professor of History and International Affairs at Aberdeen University, told the Sunday Post he believed the mugshot would play well with Republican supporters.
He said: “It has been very cleverly staged. I would imagine he has been practicing that pose, probably for months.
“It says that he is cornered but defiant. It is the image of a fighter who is about to fight back.”
Weber added: “Churchill is extremely popular in America and has become an icon, particularly on the Republican side.
“When George W Bush was in the White House, he put a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office. That is quite extraordinary because normally presidents only put references to American history in the Oval Office.
“If you ask people in the street about Churchill, they will say he is the guy who fought back against the Nazis, never gave up and never surrendered.
“Trump is trying to send the message to his supporters that things may look bad now, but if we all stick together and do what the British did in their finest hour, then we can still win.
“That is the playbook that Trump is using with this mugshot.”
Weber said that Trump, however, would not want to be too closely associated with Churchill if he wins the presidential election against Democrat Joe Biden.
He said: “If Trump wins again, he would probably drop any reference to Churchill because Trump wants to be second to no-one.
“Everything is transactional with Trump. In the long run, he doesn’t want to be Churchill. Trump wants to be Trump.”
The former president’s mugshot was taken at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on Thursday evening.
The Republican presidential front-runner was arrested on more than a dozen felony charges, part of a criminal case stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
But Trump supporters and campaign managers have embraced the image of his arrest as they rally around his claims that the charges against him are politically motivated.
Trump’s Save America fundraising committee is selling t-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs and car bumper stickers with the former president’s face and the words “never surrender”.
Trump also posted the mugshot on X, his first post on the social media platform in more than two years.
David Kochel, a Republican presidential campaign strategist, said: “His super fans are going to see this and it will be a fist-pumping exercise for them to send in that $25 and get that shirt or that mug.
“It’s kind of sad at the end of the day that the campaign is going to celebrate his indictment over 13 criminal charges, but that’s where our politics is.”
Trump faces racketeering, election fraud and other charges, along with 18 codefendants, in Georgia.
Trump has now been indicted four times since April, facing a total of 91 criminal charges, which carry a possible total of more than 700 years behind bars.