The imagery is politically salient. Insofar as it resonates with his supporters, it may be an indication not that they are indifferent to our political tradition but rather that they are drawn to one of its core mythologies — and it suggests that attempts to use the legal system to defeat him politically will backfire.
From the beginning, Mr. Trump’s admirers have compared him to a paradigmatic outlaw hero, Robin Hood. In 2017, Sebastian Gorka, an official in the Trump administration, described Mr. Trump as “a Robin Hood taking over the empire” — an outsider who suddenly found himself on the inside, supported only by his “small band of merry men and women.” Representative Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, has compared President Biden to Robin Hood’s antagonist Prince John.
Mr. Trump may not deserve the comparison — critics of his 2017 tax cut called it a reverse Robin Hood — but myth has a way of overstepping mere fact. Did Jesse James really pay off a widow’s mortgage, then rob the greedy banker who took the cash? Did Railroad Bill, the elusive Black bandit who stalked the rail lines of the South, actually feed the hungry with the money he made by robbing freight trains? For that matter, did Robin Hood really rob the rich and give to the poor? (The early ballads show him helping only members of his band.)
Whether these outlaws did the good deeds attributed to them hardly matters, because the appeal of the outlaw hero rests on a deeper truth: When the authorities are regarded as corrupt and malevolent, people will celebrate those who defy them. Like Joaquín Murrieta, the 19th-century Mexican laborer working in California who, according to legend, responded to injustice by vowing that he “would live henceforth for revenge,” Mr. Trump has promised to avenge the downtrodden. “I am your warrior. I am your justice,” he said in March 2023. “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
For those whose inclination is to trust and respect the American legal system, Mr. Trump’s mug shot, in which he defiantly glowers at the camera, may seem to lack humility. But for some others, the image may be a sign that he understands what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the law. The rapper Lil Pump has apparently had the image tattooed on his leg. The same is true of the rapper Bandman Kevo, who publicized his new body art with a recording likening himself to the candidate. (“Like Donald Trump, do what I want.”)
