CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Points Out ‘Irony’ Of Trump ‘Never Surrender’ Tweet of Mugshot He Literally Surrendered For

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins noted the “irony” of former President Donald Trump posting his mugshot on Twitter with the message “Never Surrender” — literally after surrendering for the mugshot.

Thursday marked a startling day in American history, as Trump became the first U.S. president to pose for a mugshot as he was arrested in Fulton County, Georgia on 13 counts related to election crimes in a sweeping RICO case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The arrest was a three-ring media circus in which every detail was covered in breathless real-time, and reporters anxiously awaited the release of the mugshot, which immediately became the featured image on a cornucopia of campaign merchandise — and on Trump’s first tweet since he was suspended for inciting an insurrection over the election he’s being prosecuted for conspiring to overturn.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins and former Trump National Security adviser John Bolton dissected the mugshot, and the “irony” of Trump’s tweet:

COLLINS: I just wonder, as someone, who worked, inside the West Wing, when Donald Trump was President, what is it like, for you, to see his mugshot, tonight?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well I thought it was as with most things, Trump does carefully stage, they must have thought about what look they wanted.

He could have smiled. He could have looked benign. Instead, he looks like a thug. And I think it’s intended to be a sign of intimidation, against the prosecutors and judges. That’s what they picked. And we’ll see that picture everywhere.

COLLINS: So, you think they actually spent time, deciding should he smile in this? Should he have this scowl that he appears to have gone with?

BOLTON: Almost as much time, as they spent combing his hair.

COLLINS: What do you — he posted the mug shot, shortly after, on his own social media account, along with the phrase, “Never surrender.” I mean, a bit ironic, given he had actually just surrendered, at the Fulton County Jail behind me.

But how do you expect him, to try to use this, to his political advantage, as he’s running for President?

BOLTON: Well, I think, in the same way, he’s used the other three indictments.

And, I think, the evidence is that the indictments have proven the law of diminishing marginal utility. If anything, they’re not undercutting his support. They’re building it up.

And it just underlines to me that a lot of what’s going to happen, before these trials began, is going to pass essentially unnoticed, in the political realm. The real issue here is that one or more of the trials go to — occur before the election, and then whether he’s convicted or acquitted.

And that’s why I think this scheduling date, for Ken Chesebro’s trial, in the Georgia court, in this case, is such a stunning development.

I don’t know what strategy his lawyers were following. I’ve seen it reported. People have said, on your show that he was — that his lawyers were taking a gamble, that it was a bluff. If that’s the case, they ought to be convicted of malpractice. They must have a strategy. They must think they’ve got some idea, what to do, here. And I think the consequences are potentially enormous.

W@atch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.