On the Fake Mug Shot.

The BBC online news page this morning showed a copy of Donald Trump’s ‘mug shot’ from his latest arraignment. Only it isn’t a mug shot. Where’s the impassive expression? Where’s the portrait format? Where’s the head-on look into the camera? Where’s the symmetrical composition? Where are the height markers?

This is an elderly man’s feeble attempt at self-promotion. This is: Look at me doing mean! This is the face of your rightful Commander-in-Chief. Strong, determined, uncompromising, the only one who can make America great again. Eat your heart out, Clint Eastwood!

So how did he get away with it? I wish I knew.

It reminds me of one of little Nigel Farage’s publicity shots where he poses with a fat cigar à la Winston Churchill. Utterly juvenile and transparently fake, but you know what? Trump’s supporters love it. They’re even using it as the face of their hero in his election campaign. They believe it will sway the waverers and place the Great Dunderhead back into the White House where he belongs. And maybe it will.

I have to say this…

With the utmost heartfelt respect and apology to those few splendid Americans of my acquaintance, I have to offer the opinion yet again that there is something seriously wrong with America. And if Trump is not actually the cause of it, he’s certainly tapping into it.

(I might just add that I should have included the picture somewhere on this page, but the blog and my spirits are both ailing mightily at the moment and the last thing I want polluting either of them is a picture of Donald Trump. And the fact that I don’t live in America means that none of this should matter very much to me. I’m just the European commentator.)