For months, Etsy has turn into affected by a brand new style of T-shirt: the Donald Trump mug shot. And they’re accessible in two predominant kinds: Guity AF and Not Guilty. The shirts are adorned with photographs of the previous US president showing as if he’d simply been booked, however till very not too long ago, they’ve been fakes—most of them unconvincing ones. Etsy sellers have been importing them to the platform since no less than March, as Trump has been indicted for numerous alleged crimes. Even Trump’s personal marketing campaign launched a faux mug shot T-shirt to lift cash.

But yesterday, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate was lastly subjected to the prison custom of a mug shot in Georgia, the place he has been indicted on costs referring to makes an attempt to overturn 2020 election ends in the state. It’s the fourth indictment in opposition to Trump, who now faces 91 felony costs in 4 jurisdictions. Trump maintains that he dedicated “no crime.”

In an period the place manipulated pictures have captured our consideration, Trump’s actual mug shot—a easy, poorly lit photograph—has achieved historic hype. It’s not that the picture alone is notable—Trump is among the many most recognizable faces on this planet, and he selected to pose for the shot along with his eyebrows knitted in his signature, severe look.

Still, it’s the primary mug shot of a US president. (Justice officers within the former president’s three different prison circumstances opted to skip that a part of the method.) And that picture, as plain as it’s, could turn into one of the vital necessary photographs Trump has ever taken.

“The AI-generated ones, no matter how good they are, will eventually be seen as AI-generated. Fakes will be known as fakes,” says Jonathan Finn, a professor of communication research at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, who wrote the e-book Capturing the Criminal Image: From Mug Shot to Surveillance Society. But the true mug shot “will last forever. It will have all the history and associations tied to it.”

After Trump’s mug shot was launched final night time, it flooded the web, supplanting the fakes that unfold earlier than the true factor was launched. It appeared on Instagram tales, as memes, and on Trump’s personal social community, Truth Social. After surrendering to Georgia authorities, Trump even made his first submit on X, previously Twitter, since his account was reinstated by Elon Musk late final yr. “Election interference, never surrender,” a post that includes the image reads.

Mug pictures serve a sensible objective: to establish the individual accused of a criminal offense, and doc their bodily standing on the time of an arrest. But media coverage of crimes that included mug pictures have contributed to dangerous stereotypes of individuals of colour, who’re arrested at disproportionate rates. Their publication also can make an individual appear guilty of the accusations in opposition to them earlier than they’ve had a good trial.

But Trump finds himself in a unique place, the place viewers of the mug shot will probably be break up: Those who assist Trump might even see a person wrongfully accused whereas those that presume him responsible might even see it as validation of their beliefs.