Trump campaign tries to cash in on arrest with fake mugshot T-shirt

theguardian.com:

On a day of non-stop news alerts offering minute-by-minute updates on Donald Trump’s arraignment, subscribers to Trump’s mailing list received one more breaking alert: “NEW ITEM, MUGSHOT.”

An email sent to Trump supporters showed merchandise in the former president’s official store: a plain white T-shirt featuring a clearly doctored photo of the former president getting booked. A fake chart behind him gave his height as 6ft 5in. Underneath his photo were the words “NOT GUILTY”, printed in big block letters.

Trump’s official store – which also sells hoodies emblazoned with photographs of Joe Biden falling down the stairs and “Trump was right about everything” bumper stickers – will send fans the mugshot T-shirt “for free”, if they donate $47 to his re-election campaign.

It was Trump’s first attempt at monetizing his historic arrest, after Rolling Stone reported that his campaign planned to use the mugshot “in a large marketing blitz”. In the end, the campaign was denied the opportunity: the Manhattan criminal court didn’t photograph Trump at his arraignment, so organizers went with a mock photo.

Trump was not alone in trying to make a buck out of his arrest. He joined a crowd of amateur sellers on sites such as eBay and Etsy. Fake versions of his mugshot were printed on $38.25 tapestries and $16 T-shirts for sale on Etsy.

But it was not solely Trump’s moment. Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who prosecutors allege was paid by Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about his extramarital affair, started selling her own merch line too after news broke of Trump’s indictment last week.

Daniels,