My first meeting with Donald Trump it appeared on my TV screen. It was 1994 and it happened in an episode Willy, fresh prince of Bel-Air, a popular sitcom with Will Smith. Although there was nothing particularly memorable about this episode and the appearance of Trump playing a relatively boring version of himself, that is how I perceived him for most of my early life. Developer. Reality TV star. And finally, the 45th President of the United States. Then, as now, Trump communicates best through images.
The latest episode of Trump’s visual assault began circulating the internet last Thursday, when the Fulton County Jail in Georgia made its information public. photowhich was later described as one of the most historical images of our time. And rightly so: there are no analogues in our visual lexicon. In every sense, this is an original Trump product.
Along with 18 co-defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a U.S. Department of Justice official, a number of lawyers, a press secretary, and a Lutheran pastor, Trump is accused of having played a prominent role in one conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Georgiawhere the law requires taking pictures of people accused of a crime. Like most depictions of Trump, this doesn’t even claim to be softening the impact. The grimace of the ex-president is pure aggression, pure poison and intimidation.
The photo itself is nothing special. If it wasn’t filled with such great meaning – this is the first photograph of a former American president – it would hardly be newsworthy (to be fair, during his reign, the quality of the photographs was quite remarkable: remember the ball?). ButAesthetics is a Trump classic. Eyebrows furrowed. Color cloud of hair. That stubborn gleam, eyes like darts looking for a target. The camera struggles to capture the right light, but one aspect seems remarkably fitting: Trump’s darkness in plain sight.