Let’s talk about the totally unnecessary mugshot seen around the globe that was taken last Thursday. Former President Donald Trump is literally the most famous man in the world. If he decides to jump bail, we’re going to be able to find him. His enormous plane reads ‘Trump’ all over it, never mind the fact that everyone knows his face. The absurdity and the political nature of this prosecution makes itself clear just in the mere act that he had to take a mugshot.
Both sides have been cashing in. The Trump campaign has reportedly raised more than $7 million selling mugshot merchandise over the weekend. The right is selling the mugshot merch as a middle finger. It’s like, ‘Screw you. We’re going to embrace this. This doesn’t scare us off of Trump.’ And the left is doing it because they’ve been wanting this. From the moment he won the presidency in 2016, they’ve been after him.
Trump’s Mugshot
There was speculation about whether he should smile and just own it, but he decided to go into it with a sort of badass face. It’s like, ‘Go eff yourselves.’ That’s what that picture says to me. I am glad for the penetrating look because it is a reminder of how deeply wrong this is, how serious it is, how this is an existential moment for our country in a lot of ways. It’s not that America collapses if he gets convicted, but the rule of law will never be the same again. They crossed a line we’d never before crossed. It’s deadly serious. It’s deeply wrong. And he should be out there scowling. It’s worth a scowl.
The mugshot is worth an angry and potentially threatening look of ‘turnabout is fair play.’ If you don’t think that, if President Trump wins again, Hunter Biden is going to jail for something, maybe Joe Biden is going to jail for something, you haven’t been paying attention. The same Democrats who are defending the four prosecutions of Trump will be crying foul, and the rest of us will be sitting there saying, ‘You started this – just like you did with the filibuster erasure. So, it’s on.’
Trial Date Set
In the meantime, we’ve got news in the federal prosecution of Trump over January 6 and election interference. There are two indictments at the federal level from Special Counsel Jack Smith. There is the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case that’s going to be tried in federal court in Florida, and then there’s the January 6 case that’s going to be tried in Washington, DC. That’s not to be confused with the January 6 state case for which he just posed for a mugshot in Fulton County, Georgia. There is also the New York state case regarding alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels that is a hot mess.
After Smith asked for a January 2, 2024 kick off and Trump’s team suggested April 2026, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set the trial date in the January 6 federal case for March 4, 2024 – the day before Super Tuesday. If that date sounds familiar, it is because it is the day Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wanted her trial to start.
Now you’ve got two prosecutors trying to begin their criminal trials against Trump the day before Republican primaries will be held in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. American Samoa also holds its caucus on March 5, 2024.
But I’m sure it’s totally coincidental. That day has no bearing for them on the politics.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 616 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.