'Left celebrated Trump's mugshot as a win, but its the moment they LOST the election'

Like sharks circling their prey, the left has been eagerly anticipating what they finally got – a mugshot of Donald Trump – as he was booked in the Fulton County Jail in Georgia. They mocked it and gleefully celebrated in unison, as if it was a prizefight they had finally won.

Yet hatred can be blinding and the very moment they were long awaiting may be the very moment they lost the 2024 presidential election. From the beginning of this election cycle, the Democrats have been encouraging Donald Trump to run and have done all they can to boost his nomination, convinced they could beat him more easily than anyone else. 

Now it looks like they have inadvertently elevated their most formidable opponent and could fall to the Goliath they themselves helped create.

The white billionaire, former President of the United States, in his navy suit and signature long red tie, with crisp white shirt and piercing blue eyes, with one snap of the camera joined the ranks of all those who have felt unfairly targeted and persecuted, not prosecuted. Though it was a dark day for America, it was a day of awakening for some in the black community.

When Donald Trump’s mugshot was posted, he instantly became an ally to some in black America – specifically black men – who have often felt there is a corrupt two-tier justice system which is against them and is rigged to harm or punish them.

Trump too now knows what it’s like to be targeted and unjustly accused, claiming the law is being weaponized against him, rather than protecting and defending him. 

He has experienced the humiliation and helplessness of being booked on charges he feels are wrong, being proclaimed guilty without the Constitutionally protected presumption of innocence. Black America has been outraged about this for decades, and now, Donald Trump is a fellow soldier in the march, giving a megaphone to an issue they’ve long been highlighting. 

Black America now has a representative with power and influence who understands their struggle, their feelings of victimhood, and outrage for a system that seems to punish, not protect them, with laws that harass them, not help them, work against, not for them. DJT now personally has experienced it too.

In driving through the streets of Atlanta and marching straight into Fani Willis’s lair though, Donald Trump stood defiant, not defeated. He surrendered as legally ordered while vowing to never bow or surrender to the left’s persecution.

He saw firsthand the filth and stench of a jail that is notorious for bed bugs, lice, and even deaths of inmates who have succumbed to unsanitary living conditions. The Fulton County Jail is a hellhole, under federal investigation for its inhumane environment. For a known germophobe, I’m sure it was especially distressing for Donald Trump.  

Black Lives Matter is a favorite mantra of the left, yet perhaps in one photograph, Donald Trump showed more fully that he, better than anyone, understands the plight of black America - and that they matter. And if he returns to the White House will surely continue the criminal justice reforms he began in his first term.

Donald Trump has - and will deliver again - for black America. The left is very worried. In 2020, eight percent of the black vote went to Donald Trump. Recent polling shows that upwards of 20 percent of black Americans are considering a vote for Trump in 2024. This could be catastrophic for the Democrat party.

Not only has the left overestimated support from the greater electorate for their progressive policies, but they have also underestimated the support for Donald Trump, especially for his policies which benefitted a majority of Americans, including black Americans, far more than Joe Biden’s policies have.  

Black America has been taken for granted by the left as a consistent voting bloc. And what has the left given in return for their loyalty? Democrat-run cities have the worst schools, the most violence, crime and murders, the highest prices, highest taxes, most regulations, and the least opportunity and freedom. 

So maybe it’s time for black America to look at voting a different way. As Trump said in his last campaign: “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Rather than drawing voters to them with policies that work, the left turns to fear, division, and insults void of truth. It’s all they have. And it is no longer going to work.  

There have been countless memes which have emerged following the “Mugshot seen ‘round the world'”, but the one that most defines this moment is one that looks like the fugitive “Wanted” posters from the Wild West. At the top, it says WANTED. Beneath that is the mugshot. 

And at the bottom, it says FOR PRESIDENT. In trying to convict their political opponent, the left may have just elected him.

Peggy Grande was executive assistant to Ronald Reagan and is author of “The President Will See You Now”.  She was Chair of World for Brexit and served as a political appointee in the Trump Administration. Peggy serves on the Board of Pepperdine School of Public Policy, and the Board of The Center for American Ideas.