Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David had social media users cackling after he managed to incorporate former President Donald Trump's infamous Fulton County mugshot into the premiere of the long-running HBO show's final season.
Last year, a grand jury in Georgia investigating Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election result handed up a criminal indictment that resulted in more charges for the ex-President.
Trump and 18 of his associates—including his attorney Rudy Giuliani and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows—have been charged under Georgia's anti-racketeering law, marking the fourth time Trump was indicted in 2023.
Trump's mugshot is the first and only police booking photograph of a U.S. President.
Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Playing off that, in the concluding moments of Curb's "Atlanta" episode, David's eponymous character was arrested for providing water to a friend waiting in line to vote on an extremely hot day. David's well-intentioned act ran afoul of Georgia's state law prohibiting the distribution of food or water to voters in line.
As the character was taken away by the police, his mugshot appeared on screen. Strikingly, his scowl closely resembled the photo of Trump taken after the former president's arrest in August.
You can watch the moment in the video below.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Mugshotyoutu.be
Curb's executive producer Jeff Schaffer said the spoof mugshot was a creative decision only made after filming on the season had wrapped:
“We were always going to Atlanta because of that barbaric law that you can’t give anybody water or food when they’re in line for voting. When we were talking about stories, Larry said, ‘This law is insane. I think it’d be funny if I got arrested for that."
[remembering what he told David] “This is crazy. You’re in Atlanta, he’s in Atlanta, you just got arrested. Let’s do this! We had to wait until the strike was over to even be able to shoot Larry looking like our former Oompa Loompa. So it came completely afterwards."
“It was honestly a byproduct of us having to wait around during the strike. It was perfect and now it looks like the whole thing was because of that and that was the last thing that happened.”
Social media users ate it up.
Trump has purportedly raised substantial funds by featuring the infamous image on campaign merchandise.
To fund his legal defense as he grapples with a towering mountain of legal bills, Trump has consistently turned to financial contributions from his supporters. Over the course of the past two years, he has tapped into the financial resources of a political action committee under his control, the Save America PAC.
Originally established in 2020 as a rallying point for his baseless allegations of election fraud, this leadership PAC has remained predominantly fueled by donations from grassroots supporters. Even before his entrance into the 2024 presidential race, the Save America PAC was channeling funds to cover Trump's legal fees.
And these costs encompass a broad spectrum, ranging from federal and state inquiries into his business dealings to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, as well as issues surrounding classified documents following his departure from the White House.
While legal experts contend that this fundraising practice likely adheres to legal norms, it inevitably raises ethical concerns about the manner in which Trump interacts with his donors.
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