Donald Trump and the history of the mugshot
The former president finally gets his close-up
IN 1872 ULYSSES GRANT was reportedly arrested for speeding. One day, as the 18th American president charged along 13th Street in Washington, DC, a policeman waved down his horse-drawn carriage. In the arresting officer’s own telling, Grant made a vain attempt to plead his case—“Hang it, officer, these animals of mine are thoroughbreds, and there is no holding them”—then drove to the station. There, at least, the president avoided the indignity of a mugshot, which would not be widely used until about a decade later.
From the August 26th 2023 edition
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