Donald Trump is being ridiculed on social media after claiming in a fundraising email to supporters that he was “tortured” at his Georgia arraignment last August.
“I want you to remember what they did to me,” the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign wrote in its latest mail-out.
“They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail, and TOOK MY MUGSHOT. So guess what? I put it on a mug for the WHOLE WORLD TO SEE!”
Sure enough, the same dispatch offers coffee cups for sale bearing precisely that image, available with a suggested donation of $47 or $100, the former amount a nod to his ambition of becoming America’s 47th president.
The email, characteristically hyperbolic throughout, also contains a special message from Trump that reads: “I’ve been raided, indicted, and convicted in a rigged trial! Despite all of what they throw at me, I will never surrender! Can I count on your sustained support today? You will be the reason we take back our country!”
Trump was indicted by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis last summer on racketeering charges related to the alleged plot to overturn the Peach State’s 2020 election result in his favour and voluntarily surrendered to authorities at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on August 24, where the now-infamous mugshot was taken.
Trump wasted no time in using his mugshot to raise money (Reuters)
The candidate has continued to use the image ever since, raising campaign funds by featuring it on merchandise and most recently gifting T-shirts bearing it to podcasters Logan Paul and Mike Majlak when they interviewed him for their Impaulsive show, the duo jokily referring to him as a “gangster” in response.
Trump’s email was widely derided on X, with media commentator Mike Sington characterising the appeal as just another “lie to take money from his rubes”.
Another user had questions: “Trump thinks torture includes photographs and fingerprinting? Was he strip-searched? How many criminals are laughing at him?”
