We often discuss the long-standing question of whether it is better for your client to smile or not smile in a mugshot. Some believe a smile conveys a lack of contrition while others view a frown as looking guilty. In the first mugshot of a former American president, Trump (or now Inmate P01135809) rejected both the “carefree smile” and the “disapproving frown” and went with seething scowl. It is a mugshot that unfortunately will resonate with both extremes in our political system.
In Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, the devil Mephistopheles (Marlowe spells the name “Mephistophilis”) shows him Helen of Troy, “the face who launched a thousand ships” that released a firestorm.
The Scowl is likely to launch millions of ships . . . all in the wrong directions.
For District Attorney Fani Willis and many of her supporters, the mugshot clearly holds a type of trophy kill appeal worthy of framing and mounting on a wall. This is one of those moments long portrayed on teeshirts and other merchandise for many on the left.
For many Trump supporters, it is a moment of gratuitous insult of a president who is now being prosecuted in four different states just before an election where he is the leading Republican candidate. For the most extreme, it will be portrayed as a virtual declaration of war, proof that the establishment will use every means to prevent another 2016 populist victory.
It is noteworthy that, like his critics, Trump is already selling merchandise with the mugshot and a “Never Surrender” slogan.
In that way, the mugshot will be the rallying cry at both extremes in our political system.
For that reason, I believe the mugshot was a mistake, an inflammatory moment wisely avoided in New York by another Democratic prosecutor. It is entirely unnecessary for the most recognized face in the United States.
The fact, however, is that many on both sides relish the rage. I have previously said that the most unnerving fact of what I have called “the age of rage” is that people secretly enjoy it. Rage is addictive. It allows people to say and do things that they would ordinarily avoid in public. It is a license to hate blindly and excuse all means to achieve an end.
I think that the Georgia, New York, and federal January 6th indictments are unwarranted and threaten free speech. Moreover, it is valid for many to object that these prosecutions could have occurred years ago, but were launched just before the presidential election so that Trump will be running from court to court through the general election.
It is also true that the Mar-a-Lago case is more serious and more substantive . . . and that threat is continuing to grow as a threat for Trump as witnesses change their testimony and Trump aides confirm key prosecution claims.
Likewise, while I believe the case against Trump in the Georgia indictment is weak, there are defendants in that case that face stronger claims on specific election-related crimes.
Of course, in an age of rage, reason is the first to die. We cannot allow that to happen; we cannot allow rage addicts to drive our political or legal processes. We have the greatest legal system in the world. We will sort out these issues from the criminalization of political speech to the claim that Trump can be barred from the ballot even without a charge or conviction.
Courts are likely to divide on these issues. However, we remain a nation of laws. That tradition takes a certain leap of faith. We do not support that system only when we prevail. That is the view of court packers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.,Y.). Notably, Ocasio-Cortez even said that she does not understand why we need a Supreme Court.
Even law professors and legal commentators have called our Constitution “trash” and called for the country to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.” That is the greatest danger of these times: that our deep divisions will cause us to lose faith in our defining values and in each other.
The Trump mugshot captures a defining moment for our country. It will define us. I believe that it is paramount that appellate courts consider the merits of the free speech and other challenges to the Georgia, New York, and federal cases. That may be difficult if judges support these prosecutors in demanding trials before constitutional appeals are taken. Appellate judges could agree, in good faith, that challenges are premature before any convictions.
The important thing is for citizens not to be played as chumps. We will sort this out. The courts will address these important legal issues as citizens resolve the equally important political issues raised by these prosecutions.
The merchandising and madness aside, we have more matters to resolve . . . together.
This column appeared on Fox.com
You miss the one key thing that propels Trump’s popularity in the first place.
He consistently and unflinchingly represents me. That’s MY face!
His mugshot face is exactly how I feel every time the Democrat party commits yet another corrosive atrocity against my once-Great country. And THAT is why his polls just keep going up – the Democrat party is CREATING the Trump legend even as they try to hobble him.
No other Republican primary candidate now stands a chance because they are untested by the Democrat hate machine.
Trump has passed every test. He’s The One.
I usually support Mr Turley, but when does the law apply only to Conservatives in a Democratically appliesd miscarriage. When Tyranny is Law, Revolution is mandatory. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Civility is over. Bring it.
Jimmy D. Locke… That is the best description of how I feel I have ever seen. May I copy and paste it on my wife’s forehead?
I would characterize his look as “righteous anger,” a promise that he will obtain retribution against all those who have labored to harm him, our nation, and our Constitution.
Justice is coming. Demunists are afraid.
I wish I shared your faith in the justice system, Mr. Turley, but I’m afraid you haven’t been paying close enough attention to what Judges are doing to it. I feel awful for what good men are about to witness. Truely, all good men must come to the aid of their country if they want to leave it to their children.
I hate to say it, but I agree. I don’t see a Left that is determined to destroy the justice system participating in preserving it by respecting the Constitution. I see liberal judges and partisan juries already interferring in our 2024 election.
Turley is anchored to the system by his embedded interests in the same. The system is rigged and broken. The judiciary is corrupt and also too vested to act. The Rubicon has been crossed; the horse has left the barn; the corner has been turned. There is no turning back. If we wish to remain free, we will have to shed blood to reclaim our “God-given” Constitutional rights.
When the time comes, about 30% of the population will support fighting, with less than 20% actually doing battle. Around 10% only will be hardcore. I don’t know if that will be enough to win the war, but the land is huge and geographically too expansive to completely control so an embattled minority will figuratively take to the hills and survive as free outliers while the majority will live out lives of abject subjugation.
Simple out come when one party controls legal system
Turley, this is war, there us no motivation to compromise, it is victory in saving America or defeat
The Constitution was written by men. Brilliant men, perhaps the greatest of their age, but men nevertheless. As men, they know men. They know of our courage, our cowardice, our honor and venality. At the urging of a vocal minority, the Bill of Rights was introduced shortly after the Constitution. Many of those who were opposed to the the first ten amendments believed that they were unnecessary, there was no need for those rights to be spelled out. Those men were wrong and happily they did not prevail.
Now, we stand more than two centuries later. The Bill of Rights is in tatters. The Commerce Clause has been distorted to effectively nullify the Tenth Amendment, and where even that is a bridge too far the Congress puts provisions on funds to the states – funds that are the product of taxes on the very people of those states. The Eighth Amendment has been routinely trampled; excessive fines abound, to say nothing about out of control bail requirements. The existence of the IRS-funded tax courts is a deadly affront to the Seventh. Until such time as the public defender offices share equal funding with prosecutors, the Sixth Amendment is beyond a joke – “justice for all who can afford it” has become the true law of the land. Reagan personally signed into the law the death knell of the Fifth Amendment with the Civil Asset Forfeiture Law, using drug traffickers as the excuse to “legally” steal property from those not yet convicted of a crime. The intel community routinely violates the Fourth Amendment, to the point that unwarranted domestic spying doesn’t even rate an article anymore. The Second Amendment has been infringed upon for over a century; it’s clearly understandable meaning intentionally obfuscated. And the First… she’s suffered before, but always the excesses of government has been pruned back; but never has an attack been this outrageous. Perhaps we should be thanking our betters that they’ve deigned to not abrogate the Third and Ninth; or at least, not yet.
When will the affronts to the citizenry become enough? At what point will a sufficiently large minority of the people decide that since the self-selected cultural elite have abandoned our culture’s guardrails, they are ethically free to do so as well? What power do the ‘elite’ truly have that the overwhelming majority of people do not grant them?
I sincerely pray that I don’t live long enough to find the questions play out in this land that, despite everything done to her, I still dearly love.
“What can men do against such reckless hate?”– Théoden king of Rohan at the start of the battle of Helms Deep describing the evil armies of Mordor. We can do only one thing, the same thing that Théoden and his allies did and that is battle the forces of evil (aka Marxist globalist fools) with everything we have to restore our beloved Republic under our existing Constitution!
I respect you and your proven integrity, Mr. Turley. You are, however, mistaken to believe we should examine each of these cases discretely, as if there is anything other than mindless malice behind them. When a mountain of serious evidence is ignored because it discredits Democrats and mundane issues are stretched to be criminal to get Republicans, we cannot pretend that there is any objective rule of law. We would not be able to do that even if the charges against Republicans were actually substantive rather than flimsy. We must apply the law equally and objectively or there is no law, only power games. I understand that honorable men, such as yourself, want to hold onto what was in better times – like desperately trying to find a board to hold onto when your boat sinks far from shore – but the ship is gone. Desperately explaining how this should be done if we had a navigational compass and a rudder is useless when the ship is gone – and we are at sea.
Turley, stop pontificating. There is rage, justifiably so. We are at war culturally, morally, and legally with a deranged irrational segment of the voting population that is destroying this country by the day. People of good character and values better be enraged and get vocal and active to support the only the only candidate that has the smarts and will power to defeat the progressive woke leftists. Donald J. Trump!
The solution to the “America full of rage” is to put the government back in the box it came in. No other solution will do. That will leave one side to leave in peace, but the other side foaming with rage that they are unable to groom children, ruin the currency, live at the expense of others, and generally f.ck with normal people.
“Of course, in an age of rage, reason is the first to die”
Is this why Turley also says that the Florida case is “more serious and substantive”? Because it’s not. It’s bullsh!t just like the others.
“we remain a nation of laws”- both the Durham and IG report on massive Justice Dept corruption make that statement laughable. Jonathan your living in fantasyland.
‘you’re’ not ‘your’ and yes Jonathan is being far too diplomatic towards what once was the Democrat party.
OTOH, the Democrat party has always hated the American founding, they just hid that hatred better for the last 100 years.
So he should not smile. He should not frown. He should not scowl. What should one do when they are arrested as an act political terrorism? Please enlighten us Turley. Should he have cried? I trust Trump’s instincts over yours.
This guy is soo wrong. Trump broke zero law with the documents.
He is a DemocRat
“ The important thing is for citizens not to be played as chumps.”
Citizens have been played for chumps since LBJ was elected for President, and in every election thereafter. President Eisenhower warned Americans about the power and influence of the military industrial complex, but those warnings fell on deaf ears. How many meddlesome “police actions” have we been involved in since? How many young servicemen have died for NOTHING? Chumps all.
You and others should have spoke up sooner, we all know Dems are THUGS who steal elections. People like you not calling this out is a damned disgrace. Why do these Dem thugs not feel the need to heed their constituents? They know they can steal elections. All of those Deep Staters who spied on Trump are trying to cover up their crimes.
Uh, oh, the dimmircats lost Rogan.
We HAD the best legal system
It’s not a picture, or a portrait, it’s a mug shot. For President Trump to be anything but angry is gross. His 18 or 19 co-defendants, on the other hand, showed the partisan prosecutors what they think of the entire witch hunt by smiling. Democrats are crazy-dangerous, mock them now or we’ll need to fight them later.
Actually the mug shot was a cleverly designed Rorschach test. The left and right all got the see the Trump they wanted to see. Who else could so expertly hack a mug shot but Trump!
Brilliant!
” cannot allow rage addicts to drive our political or legal processes.” But clearly we CAN allow a corrupt DOJ and FBI to drive our legal processes and a mainstream media monopoly to censure and smother our political free speech. No problem there.
“we remain a nation of laws”. Yeah, but administered by deeply biased judges and juries in D.C. years later.
The problem with people like Turley is that by the time his vaunted “legal process” is done finely grinding the wheels of justice, the damage to the country is long done and the miscreants have long enjoyed their ill-gotten political powers and moved on.
It was many years before we learned how Russiagate was totally manufactured, and not one of the conspirators has ever been indicted, but the damage done to this country is permanent. The coup worked.
Turley’s “system of justice” makes political fraud into a perfect crime. All the corruptly taken power is fully used and discarded before, years later, the corruption is proven.
Russia interfered in our election.
Manifort and the Trump campaign colluded. Trump obstructed full stop! Manifort lied and Trump pardoned. What do you not understand?
The dossier was fake. 100% made up. It was conceived and paid for by Hillary Clinton, her campaign, and surrogates in the DNC. Biden and Obama went after Carter Page specifically to spy on a political opponent. The FBI/DOJ/CIA/ETC all targeted Trump using the pretext of Russia which they all KNEW was not true and allowed Democrats to lie on TV for years claiming secret evidence otherwise. This we all know now from 2 special counsels and an IG report. The MSM has failed you. You should be pissed.
Your debunked conclusions must be based on what you were told rather than on independent research or critical thinking. Step outside of your comfort zone, gain an understanding of the opposing point of view – it’ll blow your mind.
Dear Anonymous from the Darkside… Please come out of the basement.. somehow you missed The Conclusion / Fact that $ Millions and Months of research by an esteemed legal Force under Mueller showed there was no Russia-Russia-Russia of any kind.. Period.
Your reply
I understand that you are a fool.
Then start educating yourself so you are following early on. Russiagate was know to be Dem scam very early on for anyone following as evidence became available. It was years before truth spread more. People need to seek truth not just what they are told.
Spot on Geezer
Too late. The horse left the barn at the first impeachment. We all see the fraud of the Biden crime family coverup.