Trump mocked claims he was ‘tortured’ in Georgia prison after turning himself in

Donald Trump is being ridiculed on social media after claiming in a fundraising email to supporters that he was “tortured” during his impeachment in Georgia last August.

“I want you to remember what they did to me,” wrote the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign in its latest email.

“They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail and TOOK A PHOTO OF ME. And guess what? I put them on a mug for the WHOLE WORLD TO SEE!”

Indeed, the same shipment is offering coffee mugs featuring that exact photo, available for a suggested donation of $47 or $100, with the former being a nod to his ambition to become America’s 47th president.

The email, characteristically hyperbolic, also includes a special message from Trump that reads: “I was assaulted, indicted, and convicted in a rigged trial! Despite everything they throw at me, I will never surrender! Can I count on your continued support today? You will be the reason we take our country back!”

Trump was charged last summer by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with corruption crimes related to an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 Peach State election results in his favor, and he voluntarily turned himself in to Fulton County Jail authorities on Aug. 24 in Atlanta, where the famous mugshot was taken.

The candidate has continued to use the image since then, raising funds for his campaign by placing it on merchandise and most recently by giving T-shirts featuring it to podcasters Logan Paul and Mike Majlak when they interviewed him for their show. Unrestrained show, and the duo jokingly called him a “gangster” in response.

Trump’s email was widely mocked on X, with media commentator Mike Sington calling the appeal another “lie designed to extort money from his rubes.”

Another user had questions: “Trump thinks torture includes photography and fingerprinting? Was he strip searched? How many criminals laugh at him?”

A slightly more animated poster wrote: “Trump claims he was tortured in the 20 minutes it took him to be arrested in Fulton County, Georgia, last August. Tortured? Within 20 minutes? With the Secret Service all around? We can’t elect a president who is crazy.”

Another replied: “Remember when John McCain was EXCELLENTLY tortured at the Hanoi Hilton for 6 years? Trump needs to STFU!”

The reference to the late Republican senator from Arizona is apt, as McCain was a Vietnam War pilot who was actually held and tortured during that conflict, only to be disrespected by Trump, a man who received five draft deferments.

The New York businessman said of McCain at a July 2015 campaign event in Iowa: “He’s not a war hero. He became a war hero because he was captured? I like people who haven’t been caught.

Most recently, the former president saw no problem in comparing being found liable for business fraud and fined $350 million with interest to the murder of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in February in an Arctic prison camp under highly suspicious circumstances after being imprisoned on false charges. accusations for daring to oppose Vladimir Putin.

In addition to Trump failing to take seriously the plight of those who have actually been tortured, Trump has a track record of cavalierly using the word to refer to conservative allies facing repercussions or scrutiny for past actions they didn’t particularly like.

For example, as president in October 2018, he complained that Democrats in Congress “tortured” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious Senate nomination hearings, when allegations of past sexual impropriety against him were raised and discussed.

Rudy Giuliani, his former personal lawyer, also insisted without evidence in a March 2020 interview with Fox News host Lou Dobbs that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was “tortured” in an effort to turn him against the then-president.