Trump’s mugshot was a theatrical masterstroke with a showman’s flair for the outrageous

Angry, defiant, just a little bit orange: this was classic Trump, writes veteran Washington observer Jon Sopel. What next? A bumper sticker saying ‘No to the Jailhouse. Yes to the White House’?

Trump went for angry, defiant, steely – and just a little bit orange (AFP)

It was always going to be dramatic, but Donald Trump has always had an eye for the theatrical. There are endless stories of how the former host of The Apprentice fixates on the visual – the camera angle, the positioning of the lights. I went to bed on Thursday night with Donald Trump not yet at the Fulton County jailhouse, Georgia, where he had to surrender to have his mugshot taken in connection with the latest slew of charges.

What would be his facial expression? Sad? Defiant? Repentant? (OK that was never going to happen.) Angry? Tough guy? Or would he go the route of some of his co-conspirators and have an ironic, dismissive smile on his face? Someone contacted me to say they thought Rudy Giuliani had a trainee corpse look.

Trump went for angry, defiant, steely – and just a little bit orange. Head tilted down, blue eyes looking up to stare uncompromisingly straight into the camera lens, hair like a swirl of cirrus cloud looking blonder than ever, and mouth as tightly pursed as a sphincter. It is rehearsed and studied. It is full glower. And Trump and his campaign team clearly think it’s a hit.