ON THE EVENING of August 24, Donald Trump's motorcade passed through downtown Atlanta toward the Fulton County Jail. Scores of people lined the streets snapping photos. News helicopters buzzed overhead. Not since police chased O.J. Simpson's white Bronco down a Los Angeles freeway had a vehicle's movements been so breathlessly covered by the media. Trump was en route to be arrested on 13 felony counts alleging he conspired to steal the 2020 election in Georgia. He would become the first former president in United States history to have his mug shot taken.
Inside his SUV, Trump didn't seem alarmed by his legal peril. A campaign adviser later recalled that Trump was focused on looking defiant. "He was determined not to have a bad mug shot," the adviser said. Trump understood the photograph would become a defining image of the 2024 campaign. To Democrats and the fraction of Republicans horrified by the idea of a second Trump administration, it symbolized his dangerous criminality. For MAGA and the majority of GOP voters, it would be visual proof of Trump's persecution by the deep state. After having his fingerprints taken, Trump turned to the camera doing his best Clint Eastwood circa Gran Torino. You half expected him to snarl, "Get off my lawn."
But even Trump underestimated the image's value. "Can you believe this?" he marveled on the flight back to Palm Beach when advisers told him people were already selling merchandise online. Trump ordered his campaign to get in on the action. Later that night, Trump tweeted the image and a link to his website: "MUG SHOT - AUGUST 24, 2023, ELECTION INTERFERENCE, NEVER SURRENDER!" Within two days, the campaign announced it had raised more than $7 million.
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Jenna Ortega's Year of Wonder - The breakout star of Wednesday settles into fame and with a Beetlejuice sequel on the horizon gets ready for more of it
On the eve of Wednesday's cultural domination, "Tim" invited Jenna Ortega to his house for a meeting. I love when this happens in Hollywood conversations: casually, not even pretentiously, legends referred to by first names only, as Ortega does over a clandestine morning coffee. Here is Wednesday on a Sunday at Velvet, a moody cocktail bar at the Corinthia hotel in London.
SETTING THE STAGE
Before they conquered Hollywood, George Segal, Peter Falk, Roy Scheider, and Wayne Rogers were some of the finest-though perhaps not the finest-stage actors in New York. WAYNE LAWSON, who knew them when, revisits a golden era that revolutionized American theater
HOPE AND CHANGE?
As the threat of another Trump presidency looms, AMERICA TURNS ITS EYES TO THE OBAMAS, who remain two of the most important politicians in the world-whether they like it or not
The Natural
Comedy, singing, scandal, attempted murder: Meghann Fahy, the breakout star of The White Lotus and now The Perfect Couple, can do it all
FULL-COURT PRESS
Microsoft made him one of the richest men alive. Now STEVE BALLMER is chasing one of the few prizes money (alone) can't buy: an NBA championship for his team, the Los Angeles Clippers, whose staggeringly expensive state-of-the-art arena opens this summer
THE TWISTED LOVE STORY OF JOSE AND LADDY BETTY
A 95-year-old diamond heiress and her much younger genderfluid spouse became social media stars. Was theirs a feelgood romance for the agesor something far darker?
CONSIDER
NO ONE KNOWS CANDIDATE ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.'S PROBLEMATIC HISTORY BETTER THAN HIS FAMILY. JOE HAGAN TALKS TO THAT RELUCTANT INNER CIRCLE ABOUT KENNEDY'S PAST AND THE STAKES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE
Paris When It Sizzled
IN 1973, FIVE AMERICAN DESIGNERS AND 36 MODELS DESCENDED ON THE CITY OF LIGHT FOR WHAT WOULD BECOME AN ERA-DEFINING FASHION SHOW-AND WITH THEM WAS PHOTOGRAPHER BILL CUNNINGHAM. HERE, AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT HIS TREASURE TROVE OF LARGELY UNSEEN PHOTOS, PUBLISHED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME
Playing It STRAIGHT
Dynamic young stars have broken out in queer roles. Should their own sexuality matter?
Another COUNTRY
Searching for James Baldwin in the South of France
