Donald Trump became the first former president in US history to be arraigned on criminal charges in New York on Tuesday. He was expected to be fingerprinted and there was much speculation about whether or not a police mugshot of him would be taken and made public after his arraignment.
While many claimed that because Trump is a well-known public figure who is frequently in the news and does not pose a big flight risk, a mugshot would not be taken of him, a mugshot of Trump is being circulated on social media claiming it to be an original. However, that is not a genuine mugshot of the former president.
Trump in Orange Jumpsuit
As former President Donald Trump sat inside the Manhattan Criminal Courts on Tuesday to face 34 felony charges, a mugshot of the former president started circulating on social media. Although there were quite a few different mugshots doing the rounds on the internet, one particularly claimed to be genuine.
This particular mugshot appears to show Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit. Many on social media started claiming that this mugshot was kept hidden by the media as they didn't want it to reach the general public.
However, the claim is completely false. The photo of Trump was altered using digital manipulation to make it seem as though it were in a mugshot.
In fact, the photo was first tweeted on the evening of Monday (April 3), while Trump was supposed to be formally arrested and arraigned in Manhattan on Tuesday (April 4). If a mugshot were to be taken, it would have been taken the day after this fake one went viral.
Completely False and Baseless
This digital modification of the mugshot was inspired by a New York magazine article from September 2020 titled "The People v. Donald J. Trump," which described the ongoing criminal investigations against the president.
Joe Darrow created the artwork, which he then digitally altered using an AFP photo by Mandel Ngan and a stock photo of a jumpsuit from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.
However, a law enforcement official who spoke with The New York Times claims that the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building, where Trump was arraigned on Tuesday, lacks the equipment required to take his mugshot.
He would have to be brought to the Manhattan Correctional Complex or the Central Booking facility of the New York Police Department to receive a mugshot.
Moreover, moving around to get a mugshot would be exceedingly unlikely because the Secret Service has carefully planned Trump's arraignment to minimize security threats to him.
This is not the first time a fake mugshot of the former president has appeared. Earlier last month, another digitally altered image of Trump went viral just before a New York grand jury indicted him. Also, in the past, AI-generated pictures that allegedly showed Trump being arrested at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, mansion, had appeared.
Much like those photos, this mugshot of Trump is also not genuine. In fact, the claim is completely false and baseless.
