Former President Donald Trump’s recently released mugshot will not play well for him in a general election and only appeals to his existing base, a dismissive ex-White House Press Secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki said Saturday.
The Hill reports Psakai used commentary she wrote for her weekly MSNBC Daily newsletter titled “Trump’s mug shot will backfire in 2024” to set out her claim.
Psaki argued independent and moderate voters will not be more likely to vote for the former president because he “was booked in the Fulton County Jail.” She further noted while Trump and his allies are “leaning into” the mugshot, it may only be received well by his base and be ignored everywhere else:
This photo will be shared on every text thread in America. Sometimes, images are more persuasive than anything.
And it is hard to imagine that this image, of Trump scowling into the police camera, will make him more appealing to anyone who is not already a hardcore supporter.
A Trump spokesperson described the mug shot as a “trophy” in an interview on Newsmax late Friday.
“They didn’t need the mugshot. It was, I guess to her, probably a trophy, but thank you, because now the trophy actually became ours,” Trump spokeswoman Alina Habba said.
There has been an awakening.
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 26, 2023
Have you felt it? https://t.co/TLm9srrk9U
Trump surrendered himself into custody after being indicted alongside 18 others in a 98-page, 41-count indictment by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Fulton County made the former president pose for the image, marking his first mugshot of the four criminal cases he currently faces.
Meanwhile Trump’s campaign has raised $7.1 million since he surrendered himself into custody at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, as Breitbart News reported.
