Donald Trump said he has received more support from Black and Hispanic voters since his infamous mugshot was taken last summer.
Trump’s comments came during a “Barber Shop Roundtable” voter event on Wednesday hosted by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and GOP Representative Byron Donalds. Trump, who joined the event via call, is also preparing for the first presidential debate of the year on Thursday evening.
“Since [the mugshot] happened, the support among the Black community and the Hispanic community has skyrocketed,” Trump said. “It has been amazing, really been amazing.”
Trump praised his mugshot, which was taken in August as he was processed at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia. Fani Willis, district attorney for Fulton County, indicted him last summer on racketeering charges related to a plot to overturn the state’s 2020 election result.
“The mug shot is the best,” he said. “It just beat Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra by a lot, by the way. Beat it by a lot. But it’s the number one mug shot of all time — it’s really an amazing thing.”
Trump was slammed on social media in February for making a similar remark that Black voters like him more because of his mugshot.
“I got indicted for nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference. And then I got indicted a second time, a third time and a fourth time,” Trump said in February. “And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing.”
Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC called the speech “unbelievably racist.”
“Please, please share [these clips] with your Trump-loving friends,” Capehart told his viewers earlier this year. “These clips, well, they actually might like it. Well, have them understand why what we just heard is so unbelievably racist, but also problematic for a democracy. That man should never be president of the United States again.”
Trump’s praise for his mugshot on Wednesday came just hours after he falsely claimed he was tortured at the Fulton County Jail last year.
“They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail, and TOOK MY MUGSHOT,” the former president wrote in a campaign email.
But Trump turned the situation into a fundraising opportunity: “So guess what? I put it on a mug for the WHOLE WORLD TO SEE!”
He is now selling coffee cups for sale bearing the infamous mugshot, available with a suggested donation of $47 or $100, a nod to his chances of becoming America’s 47th president this November.
But Trump has been using the booking photo to make money since the moment it was taken. Trump said in September his campaign had raised $10 million from the image, The Independent previously reported.
