Former US President Donald Trump has appeared in prison after being charged with attempted voter fraud. Trump had to face the authorities in the US state of Georgia.
At the appointment in the Atlanta County Jail, his personal details were taken – and a police photo was also taken of the Republican.
Several firsts
This makes Trump the first ex-president to appear in prison and have a police photo taken. Trump used the unprecedented photo directly for the election campaign and published it on social networks. The picture should go down in history.
Trump is the first ex-US President to be indicted. Not once, but four times. In the three other cases in New York, Miami and Washington in which the Republican was charged, the authorities had refrained from such an image.
The Republican wants to move back into the White House after the 2024 presidential election and is applying for his party’s candidacy. So far, the charges in internal party polls have done him no harm.
In the Georgia capital, Trump is charged with 18 other suspects over his attempts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the state. Prosecutors had given the Republican and the other defendants until Friday to voluntarily report themselves to law enforcement agencies in Atlanta.
Trump has now complied. Authorities in Atlanta, unlike those in the other criminal cases, did not grant him any exemptions. It is not yet clear when Trump’s trial in Georgia will begin.
Joe Biden comments on police photos
US President Joe Biden only briefly commented on the publication of Trump’s police photo. “I saw it on TV,” Biden said while on vacation on the US West Coast when asked by reporters. When asked what he thought of the picture, the President said with a mischievous smile on his face: “Handsome guy. Wonderful guy.” Biden did not go into detail about the photo.
A return after a long time
Shortly after leaving prison, the 77-year-old used the memorable mugshot to return to successor platform X, more than two and a half years after his last Twitter post.
There he posted the picture without a police emblem, but with the slogan: “Never give up!” He was banned from major online platforms at the end of his tenure after his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Trump has since regained access to all major online services. He reported back on several channels. However, he remained silent on the Twitter platform, which has recently been called X.
Instead, he had built a Twitter copy, the Truth Social platform. He publishes several articles there every day. In the current election campaign, however, Trump could benefit from greater online reach. He has six million subscribers on Truth Social and still has more than 86 million on X.
