Last Thursday night, former president Donald Trump, who served as the forty-fifth president of the United States of America from 2016 to 2020, where he was defeated in a controversial election that he himself disputed, turned himself in after being indicted on multiple charges concerning his attempted overthrow of the United States Government on January Sixth 2020, numerous accounts of tax fraud conducted and committed by his organization and allied corporate bodies, as well as the issue of his possession of classified United States documents, and alleged collusion with the house of Saudi the royal family and ruling body of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an entity that hasn’t been the most friendly in recent years.
Donald J. Trump has been a contentious figure ever since he announced his bid for the presidency in 2016, an announcement that was largely met with widespread ridicule. No person in the history of the United States had ever become president without some sort of political or military background. The savvy businessman was thought to not even be able to claim victory in the primary, let alone the election. Yet, against all odds, somehow, he found himself elected as the President of the most powerful military and economic power on the planet, bringing the Republican Party crashing back into power after the failure of McCain and Mitt Romney in the 2008 and 2012 elections.
Trump’s presidency was mired in controversy and contempt. Accused of racist policy, and disrespect for the institutions of the United States both his foreign and domestic policy were met with divisive upset at every turn, only exacerbated by his poor response to the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, which proved to be a national tragedy fro the United States of America as millions of people passed away at the hands of the disease. The rejection of his presidency was solidified in the 2020 election, where he was voted out in favor of Democrat candidate Joseph R Biden, making Trump one of the few presidents to fail at reelection.
However, Trump refused to accept the results, becoming the only president in the history of the United States to reject an election. Citing vulnerability of voting machines, and state corruption in key swing states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, he encouraged his supporters to reject the election, and even encouraged his vice president to deny the results of the election, and certify Trump as the victor. Pence, rejecting this, became a target on the day of January sixth, where, spurred on by Trump himself, a large number of Trump supporters stormed the U.S capitol in what was essentially an attempted coup of the government of the United States of America. The insurrection, though a failure, proved to be a blemish on the history of the United States.
However, Trump’s long history of corruption and law-breaking have finally caught up to him, and he turned himself into Fulton County Jail after being made aware that federal authorities were preparing to arrest him, by force if necessary. Seemingly choosing the easier option, he willfully presented himself to authorities and was promptly taken into custody.
The eventual fallout of this remains to be seen, but Trump reportedly using his vast fortune immediately purchased bond, also known as bail, and was released from incarceration. A trial however is likely to be held at some point in the future. In the meantime, the mugshot of Trump, likely to become one of the defining images of this era of American history, has rapidly circulated online, becoming a “meme” in a most ironic twist.
