Trump’s gilded mugshot guards the Oval Office—a warning to all who pass. As Ukraine’s president learned, this intimidating checkpoint signals the fate awaiting anyone who challenges Dear Leader.

By Michael Shaw and Cara Finnegan

In a narrow hallway between the President’s secretary’s space and the Oval Office, Trump’s framed booking photo represents just one element of the administration’s broader intimidation tactics. Since its installation last month, this trophy has become a powerful signal and entry warning for an administration that increasingly targets judges, journalists, foreign leaders, and anybody else who dare to dissent.

In our latest short Chatting the Pictures video podcast, we discuss how the gilded framing of the mugshot allows it to blend seamlessly with the historical presidential portraits in the Oval Office, effectively elevating a booking photo to the status of presidential portraiture. We note how the placement serves as both an act of intimidation and a political statement, signaling the administration’s defiance of norms and disregard for legal consequences. The photo was taken by Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times.

» Watch the full video now to see Trump’s mugshot power play in action «

That West Wing Madness

As a video “chaser,” here are a few more images capturing the idolatry, and chaos in the West Wing.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

This stark black-and-white photograph lends historical veracity to an outlaw presidency. The monochrome aesthetic doesn’t just incorporate the mugshot into the scene—it visually codifies Trump’s defiance as fundamental to his governance. By presenting the criminal portrait in the same tones as the surrounding environment, the image normalizes transgression as a feature, not a bug.

Saul Loeb/Getty Images

Trump going off on Zelensky.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This photo catches White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles—usually maintaining a poker face or staying out of the spotlight altogether—completely off-guard. (Her appearance next to the mugshot in the black-and-white photo is more typical of how you usually see her.) Her expression says everything about what it’s like managing a loose cannon. The shot was snapped during that wild February 2025 press conference with Netanyahu, right after Trump casually dropped his bombshell idea about taking over Gaza, kicking out Palestinians, and building luxury beachfront resorts.

Presidential Dining Room, West Wing. February 21, 2025. Photo: Uncredited/White House

As for Trump’s obsession with the New York Post, the presidential dining room delivers quite a fix. While the gold-framed mugshot serves as a power move, these walls plastered with covers reveal the more personal side of his media addiction. It’s like seeing the complete picture: the intimidating criminal portrait represents the public face of defiance, while this personal shrine of flattering coverage feeds his need for constant validation.

Presidential Dining Room, West Wing. February 21, 2025. Photo: Uncredited/White House

Finally, one of the saddest and most diagnostic photos of narcissism I’ve ever seen—political or otherwise. On the opposite side of the presidential dining room, Trump stands engulfed in his hall of mirrors: the desktop bronze commemorating the attempt on his life reframed as a hero moment, the stereo portraits reflecting his self-worship, his head captured in the actual mirror, with all the kitsch in the room contrasting sharply with the elegant portrait in the upper right of Haitian-born John James Audubon, the famous wildlife artist painted by John Syme.

The way Trump is lost in space, oblivious to his Vice President while drowning in reflections of himself, reveals the profound and gnawing emptiness and soul hunger of the President’s virtually untreatable mental disorder.