On August 24, 2023, former President Donald Trump once again made presidential history. That Thursday, he became the first U.S. president ever to be arrested and have a mugshot taken. The charges stemmed from allegations related to the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. Though he served his presidency in Washington D.C., Trump turned himself in for arrest in Fulton County, Georgia, which is where state charges against him were filed.
Trump’s arrest took relatively little time, and he was in and out in under a half-hour. In addition to getting a booking photo, he also had his fingerprints taken, and there was actually a crowd of supporters waiting at the jail for him when he showed up. Following his arrest, Trump’s mugshot was displayed on virtually every major newspaper and news program, and Trump even posted the picture to X (formerly known as Twitter) — the first time he had even used the service in over two years.
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Trump’s photo was undoubtedly historic, but for all the wrong reasons. With his arrest, Trump joined a pretty horrendous list of former world leaders to have been booked and charged criminally after their term ended, including infamous dictators Manuel Noriega and Augusto Pinochet. For his part, prosecutors charged Trump with 13 felonies, and he was one of just 19 co-conspirators accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. A week later, on August 31, 2023, Trump officially pleaded not guilty to all charges.
