Like clockwork, as soon as Trump’s mugshot became available, money was being made off of it. Everyone is getting in on the action. Joe Biden sent out a fundraising letter, Etsy vendors have many products available from t-shirts to mugs (get it, a mug shot?), and the media is busy spreading the mugshot around social media.

The Trump campaign has its t-shirt offer as a fundraising action.

Trump campaign is already selling a t-shirt with the mugshot on it pic.twitter.com/TsXJNkmE7i

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) August 25, 2023

Trump posted it on his Truth Social account.

And the former president is now using the mugshot on Truth Social: pic.twitter.com/0NLoaJmAmh

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 25, 2023

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene crashed the party and made her mugshot to show her solidarity with Trump. She changed her Twitter photo. Sure, this is normal. She wants to be his vice presidential pick.

“To stand in solidarity with Pres. Trump, I made my own mug shot with the Fulton County Jail here logo and I changed it to my official photo on Twitter. So, I encourage everyone to make your own MAGA mug shot.”

“To stand in solidarity with Pres. Trump, I made my own mug shot with the Fulton County Jail here logo and I changed it to my official photo on Twitter. So, I encourage everyone to make your own MAGA mug shot.”

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) outside the Fulton County Jail pic.twitter.com/mufFeGxxPv

— The Recount (@therecount) August 24, 2023

Is the Trump mugshot automatically the most famous photo ever?

Also pic.twitter.com/iqy3ku4LQ2

— Fred Bauer (@fredbauerblog) August 25, 2023

Trump came back to Twitter Thursday night to post the mugshot. It is the first tweet on the account since January 8, 2021.

https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023

I’m a Capitalist so I’m not particularly bothered by anyone cashing in on a mugshot. It’s a black mark on our country that it is a former president, but it’s all a part of history now. The world is watching. Are we a Banana Republic now? Conservatives rightly point to a two-tier justice system. It didn’t begin with Trump after January 6, 2021, but a two-tier system of justice against Trump was obvious throughout his term in office. Democrats began impeachment talk before he was inaugurated. Democrats and the press willfully pushed a false story about Russian collusion against Trump and it all began with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She has not been held accountable for anything and she won’t. Private server in her bathroom or basement or wherever it was in her house? No biggie. Just move along.

Democrats and the press – redundant, I know – have been longing for a Trump mugshot since he won the 2016 election. Now they have it. It’s smart for Trump to take advantage of it, same as others. He knows about marketing and he markets himself best. That mugshot is red meat for the base and donations will pour in. He’s got legal bills to pay, you know.

Trump has turned himself in for processing four times now, but he has only had one mugshot taken. He shouldn’t have had to have the one in Fulton County but D.A. Fani Willis is determined to go as hard as possible against Trump.

Security was tight: Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat had announced this week there would be a “hard lockdown” around the jail during Trump’s surrender, and the airspace above the jail was closed for more than two hours Thursday while the former president was being booked.

While he was inside the jail, away from cameras, Trump went through the same process as any other person would when surrendering: being fingerprinted and having his mug shot taken. Afterward, his booking photo was publicly released, just as any mug shots for criminal defendants in the state would be when requested.

Trump is known around the world. Mugshots are to identify people processed at a jail. No one needs a mugshot to identify Trump, if necessary. D.A. Willis wants a circus, a reality show kind of trial. It’s a state trial so cameras will be allowed in the courtroom when Trump goes to trial. Why the mugshot, then, in Georgia? Because Willis wants to make an example out of Trump. Everyone is treated the same in Fulton County.

But Fulton County officials had maintained that Trump, along with the 18 other defendants indicted in the case under Georgia state laws, would be treated just as any others would during their bookings — including being processed at “Rice Street,” a nickname for the notoriously dilapidated Fulton County Jail. Leading up to Thursday, gamblers were placing bets on various aspects of the anticipated mug shot, from what Trump would wear to whether he would smile.

So, a circus is what we will get. The world will watch a former American president on trial for his actions after an election. What a mess.