Obiviously, I’m not the only one who recognized that Trump deliberately imitated Adolf Hitler’s baleful stare in his mugshot. I knew I had seen that look before. When I went hunting for photos in the Daily Kos database to compare the two mugshots, a side by side comparison was already there. So someone else also recognized the look in Hitler’s 1923 arrest, and then repeated for the cover of Mein Kampf when it was published in 1925.
If you hunt through Trump’s many photos, the mugshot stands out—and not just because it’s the first mugshot of a former US president. Trump had days to prepare for the photo, and he used the occasion to send a message.
The question is, what’s the message?
I have a copy of Hitler’s wretched work, obtained for academic work and teaching European history (focused on the development of European political economy in terms of state-market interactions). Back in the Reagan era I had an emphasis in my Ph.D. program on the history and theory of political economy. Of course, Fascism is a form of state-market interaction that some, particularly Marxists, argued was the logical culmination of capitalism. While it’s worth discussing fascism and how Trump might be seeking to set up an Americanized version, the key thing not to lose sight of is the look he deliberately imitated.
It’s right off the cover of the Hitler’s book. I recognized it immediately.
So what’s the message?
I think, with this mugshot, Trump is telegraphing to his followers that he intends to recover from this humilation just like Hitler did from his 1923 arrest, trial and incarceration. Trump expects that if he gets a sentence, it will be short, and if he gets acquitted or has a hung jury, he will use it to rally his followers and lead them to victory like the fuehrer did. It’s a promise of revenge and retribution that will be visited on his enemies, just like Hitler did after he ascended to power.
The many MAGA folks photoshopping their own mugshots in supposed solidarity with Trump are signalling that they want to join in when the revenge and retribution are meted out.
Trump has been warned he is not supposed to threaten witnesses or members of jury or judiciary. Trump’s mugshot shows clearly he doesn’t give a damn about those warnings.
That mugshot is nothing to celebrate about. Trump used it to make a threat to everyone who doesn’t flock to the American Fuehrer’s side. We have to take that threat seriously.
This trial is not just of Trump; it’s also of the American system of people’s sovereignty—embodied in our right to vote—and the rule of law where everyone is equal under the law that is undergoing a trial.