Former President Donald J. Trump’s recent Fulton County mugshot is an attempt to humiliate the previous Commander-in-Chief, according to Republican strategist Adam Weiss, who suggested it also served to scare the right “to death” and deter any future “questioning” of election results.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Weiss addressed Trump’s famous mugshot taken last week, calling it an attempt by President Biden’s DOJ to “humiliate” the former president and accusing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of “always fundraising [and] figuring out any way possible to convict 19 people,” including by “throwing out all sorts of rights that we know as Americans.”
“The mugshot is kind of the final straw of what the Deep State, the judiciary and the prosecutor are going after to try and humiliate the former president,” he added.
The media and political strategist compared the current administration’s behavior to that of “third-world” countries and not that of the United States of America — where “we don’t go after former presidents for speaking out against what the Democrats always did, [with] Stacey Abrams [and] Hillary Clinton all railing against what they’ve perceived as stolen elections.”
Weiss noted the mug shot gives Trump “some street cred,” makes his base and Republicans “more livid,” and will “help him in fundraising, securing the nomination, and putting him in a better position now to secure the nomination than before.”
“More pounding on him is not going to take his supporters away, as much as they want,” he noted.
However, he suggested, our society has become so “polarized,” that it is challenging to know if the mugshot “really moves the needle either way.”
“I don’t think his hardcore supporters will support him any less,” he stated. “Left-wingers will reinforce what they’ve thought for 6-7 years about him, and if the center sees this clearer, they’ll realize it’s a terrible hit job — but only if it gets through to them.”
“We don’t have enough voices in the media like Breitbart and other outlets that tell the truth,” he added, “so I’m not sure how much will get through to the center because that’s really where the battle is going to be to win in the general election.”
Across the globe, Weiss argued, President Joe Biden has “turned America into an international laughing stock,” with the current administration, through its “politicized” and “weaponized” DOJ, now indicting a former president under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a federal law classically used to target organized crime syndicates.
“You’re not allowed to have an opinion anymore, to think an election was stolen, to think there were irregularities,” he stated. “You’re supposed to be sheep that can’t say anything.”
Claiming the wide-ranging charges in the RICO indictment against 18 others and the costly legal expenses are intended to induce fear, Weiss said, “If you just scare all the people on the center-right, then who’s gonna stand up next time and fight if you’re scared to death?”
“Now, they’ll really be afraid to speak out,” he added. “So I think that’s their overall plan: let’s scare them enough that if we have any sort of [election] shenanigans again then we won’t have anybody saying a word.”
Earlier this month, Weiss — who serves as the CEO of AMW PR, a New York-based political strategy and communications firm — explained why Trump should “steer clear” of the GOP presidential debate stage, and has argued how the former president makes dominating his competition “look easy” in an essay later shared by Trump.
Trump’s instantly iconic mugshot dominated the front pages of major newspapers throughout the nation on Friday morning.
The former president compounded the circulation by posting the image on Twitter in his first tweet since 2021, and the former president’s campaign raised over $7.1 million after he surrendered himself into custody at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023
Meanwhile, President Biden fundraised online the day of the arrest, calling it a “great day” to donate to his campaign.
The mugshot was taken at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office on charges stemming from District Attorney Fani Willis’s indictment — Trump’s fourth indictment in a matter of months. This time, the charges are related to questioning the results of the 2020 election.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. (Brynn Anderson/AP)
He and 18 co-defendants are involved in this case.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
