Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he is directing a House committee to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family's business dealings, launching historic proceedings ahead of the 2024 election. McCarthy said the House Oversight Committee's investigation so far has found a “culture of corruption” around the Biden family as Republicans probe the business dealings of Biden's son, Hunter Biden, from before the Democratic president took office. Also read: Trump gets desired Democratic foes, but Biden worries linger “These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption, and they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said outside the speaker's office at the Capitol. "That’s why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.” The announcement comes as the Republican leader faces mounting pressure from his right flank to take action against Biden while he also is struggling to pass legislation needed to avoid a federal government shutdown at the end of the month. Also read: Ex-Trump aide confirms Biden probe linked to Ukraine aid An inquiry is step toward impeachment, and McCarthy essentially outlined potential charges. He is is planning to convene lawmakers behind closed doors multiple times this week, including for a meeting to discuss the Biden impeachment. The Republican leader is once again at a political crossroads — trying to keep his most conservative lawmakers satisfied and prevent his own ouster. It’s a familiar political bind for McCarthy, who is juggling the impeachment inquiry and the government shutdown threat with no clear end game. Also read: What's coming in impeachment: Public hearings, messaging Government funding is to run out on Sept. 30, which is the end of the federal fiscal year, and Congress must pass new funding bills or risk a shutdown and the interruption of government services. Biden’s White House has dismissed the impeachment push as politically motivated. “Speaker McCarthy shouldn’t cave to the extreme, far-right members who are threatening to shut down the government unless they get a baseless, evidence-free impeachment of President Biden. The consequences for the American people are too serious,” White House spokesman Ian Sams has said. The impeachment push comes as Trump, who was twice impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate, faces more serious charges in court. Trump has been indicted four times this year, including for trying to overturn the 2020 election Biden won. "This is a transparent effort to boost Donald Trump’s campaign by establishing a false moral equivalency between Trump — the four time-indicted former president" and Biden, who faces “zero evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. House Republicans are probing the business dealings of Hunter Biden but so far have not produced hard evidence linking them and the president. They have shown a few instances largely during the time the elder Biden was Barack Obama's vice president when he spoke by phone with his son and stopped by dinners his son was hosting with business partners. An impeachment inquiry would provide more heft to the House investigation, especially as it battles in court for access to Biden family financial records. Republicans contend the Justice Department has not fully probed the allegations against Hunter Biden, and say he received preferential treatment in what they call a sweetheart plea deal that recently collapsed. The Department of Justice has appointed a special prosecutor in that probe. "We will go wherever the evidence takes us,” McCarthy said. The White House has insisted Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings. And Democrats on the Oversight Committee are stepping up to fight against what they view as unfounded claims against him ahead of the 2024 election. Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman leading the Oversight Committee, is digging into the Biden family finances and is expected to seek banking records for Hunter Biden as the panel tries to follow the flow of money. On Tuesday, Comer demanded the State Department produce documents about the work Biden did as vice president during the Obama administration to clean up corruption in Ukraine. Comer wants to understand the State Department's views of former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, whom Biden and many Western allies wanted removed from office because of allegations of corruption. This comes as federal government funding is set to run out on Sept. 30, which is the end of the federal fiscal year, and Congress must pass new funding bills or risk a shutdown and the interruption of government services. Conservatives who power McCarty's majority want to slash spending, and the hard right is unwilling to approve spending levels the speaker negotiated with Biden earlier this year. McCarthy is trying to float a 30-day stopgap measure to keep government running to Nov. 1, but conservatives are balking at what's called a continuing resolution, or CR, as they pursue cuts. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said late Monday exiting McCarthy's office she has “red lines" against any new money being spent for COVID-19 vaccines or mandates or Russia's war in Ukraine. Another Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a top Trump ally, is warning that McCarthy could face blowback from conservatives if he does not push hard for spending cuts. At the start of the year, Gaetz and other Republicans secured agreements from McCarthy as he struggled to win their votes to become House speaker. Under the House rules, McCarthy's opponents are able to call a vote at any time to try to oust the speaker from office.

Eileen C Donahoe has been appointed as the US State Department’s special envoy and coordinator for Digital Freedom. “I welcome the appointment of Dr Eileen Donahoe as the State Department’s special envoy and coordinator for Digital Freedom in the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy,” said US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken on Monday. Also read: US doesn't consider it interference when other countries discuss its elections: State Dept The president’s appointment of Dr Donahoe reinforces the importance of digital freedom and values-based technology governance work as Administration and Department priorities, he said, adding that as Special Envoy and Coordinator, Dr Donahoe will leverage her deep technical knowledge and foreign policy experience to advance US priorities around online freedoms, digital inclusion, and information integrity. “Dr Donahoe has built a distinguished career promoting human rights and digital freedom both within and outside of government and is uniquely qualified to lead in this role. She joins us from the Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPi) at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where she served as the Executive Director,” said Blinken. Also read: All countries including Bangladesh should have free and fair elections: US State Dept Dr Donahoe previously served as the first US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. She was also Director of Global Affairs at Human Rights Watch where she represented the organization worldwide on human rights foreign policy, with a special focus on Internet governance and digital security. Also read: US encourages Bangladesh govt to enable stakeholders to review the draft Cyber Security Act “We are excited to welcome Dr. Donahue back to the State Department in this important leadership role,” Blinken said.

First lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Monday but is experiencing only mild symptoms, her spokeswoman said. President Joe Biden was tested for the virus following his wife's positive test, but his results were negative. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president would continue testing regularly and would be monitored for symptoms. Jill Biden will remain at the couple's home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the time being, communications director Elizabeth Alexander said. The first lady had planned to start the new school year Tuesday at Northern Virginia Community College, where she teaches English and writing. Due to her condition, she was working with school officials to arrange substitute teachers for her classes, Alexander said. The first lady had traveled with her husband to Florida on Saturday to inspect the damage from Hurricane Idalia. President Biden then spent part of the Labor Day weekend at the Delaware beach house before traveling Monday to a union event in Philadelphia and then back to the White House. The Bidens both contracted COVID previously, last summer.

More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote. Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, secretaries of state and experts warn. Some point to former President Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen and spreading conspiracy theories about election workers. Experts fear the 2024 election could be worse and want the federal government to do more to protect election workers. The Justice Department created the Election Threats Task Force in 2021 led by its public integrity section, which investigates election crimes. John Keller, the unit's second in command, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the department hoped its prosecutions would deter others from threatening election workers. Also read: All countries including Bangladesh should have free and fair elections: US State Dept "This isn't going to be taken lightly. It's not going to be trivialized," he said. "Federal judges, the courts are taking misconduct seriously and the punishments are going to be commensurate with the seriousness of the conduct." Two more men pleaded guilty Thursday to threatening election workers in Arizona and Georgia in separate cases. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would keep up the investigations, adding, "A functioning democracy requires that the public servants who administer our elections are able to do their jobs without fearing for their lives." The unit has filed 14 cases and two have resulted in yearslong prison sentences, including a 2 1/2-year sentence Monday for Mark Rissi, an Iowa man charged with leaving a message threatening to "lynch" and "hang" an Arizona election official. He had been "inundated with misinformation" and now "feels horrible" about the messages he left, his lawyer Anthony Knowles said. Also read: US seeks free and fair election, durable solution for Rohingya, says State Dept official A Texas man was given 3 1/2 years earlier this month after suggesting a "mass shooting of poll workers and election officials" last year, charges stated. In one message, the Justice Department said, the man wrote: "Someone needs to get these people AND their children. The children are the most important message to send." His lawyer did not return a message seeking comment. One indictment unveiled in August was against a man accused of leaving an expletive-filled voicemail after the 2020 election for Tina Barton, a Republican who formerly was the clerk in Rochester Hills, Michigan, outside Detroit. According to the indictment, the person vowed that "a million plus patriots will surround you when you least expect it" and "we'll … kill you." Barton said it was just one of many threats that left her feeling deeply anxious. "I'm really hopeful the charges will send a strong message, and we won't find ourselves in the same position after the next election," she said. Also read: US supports Bangladesh’s goal of holding a free, fair and peaceful election: State Dept Normally, the periods between elections are quiet for the workers who run voting systems around the U.S. But for many, that's no longer true, said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat who has pushed back against conspiracy theories surrounding elections. "I anticipate it will get worse as we end this year and go into the presidential election next year," Griswold said. Griswold said the threats come in "waves," usually following social media posts by prominent figures about false claims the 2020 election was stolen or blog posts on far-right websites. While the nation is more informed about the threats to election workers, she worries that there haven't been enough prosecutions and states haven't taken enough action to protect workers. "Do we have the best tools to get through the next period of time? Absolutely not," Griswold said. Election officials note that there have been thousands of threats nationwide yet relatively few prosecutions. They say they understand the high bar to actually prosecute a case but that more could be done. Liz Howard, a former Virginia election official now at the Brennan Center for Justice's elections and government program, called on the Justice Department to hire a senior adviser with existing relationships with election officials to improve outreach. About 1 in 5 election workers know someone who left their election job for safety reasons and 73% of local election officials said harassment has increased, according to a Brennan Center survey published in April. The task force has reviewed more than 2,000 reports of threats and harassment across the country since its inception, though most of those cases haven't brought charges from prosecutors who point to the high legal bar set by the Supreme Court for criminal prosecution. Communication must be considered a "true threat," one that crosses a line to a serious intent to hurt someone, in order to be a potential crime rather than free speech, Keller said. "We are not criminalizing or frankly discouraging free speech by actions that we're taking from a law enforcement perspective," he said. The task force's work is unfolding at a time when Trump and other Republicans have accused the Biden administration of using the Justice Department to target political opponents, although the task force itself hasn't been targeted publicly by Republicans. Many GOP leaders have sharply criticized the federal prosecutions of Trump and of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump himself faces a federal indictment in Washington, D.C., and a state indictment in Georgia over his efforts to overturn 2020 election results. He has denied wrongdoing and said he was acting within the law. A series of federal and state investigations and dozens of lawsuits have not uncovered any evidence the election was rigged. Trump is the front-runner for the GOP nomination for president in 2024 and continues in his speeches and online posts to argue the 2020 election was rigged. For many election workers, the threats have been a major driving factor to leave the job, hollowing out the ranks of experience ahead of 2024, said Dokhi Fassihian, the deputy chief of strategy and program at Issue One, a nonpartisan reform group representing election officials. About 1 in 5 election officials in 2024 will have begun service after the 2020 election, the Brennan Center survey found. "Many are deciding it's just not worth it to stay," Fassihian said.

President Joe Biden's administration will announce on Tuesday the first prescription drugs being targeted by the U.S. government for price negotiations as part of an effort to lower Medicare costs. The announcement is a significant step under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed by Biden last year. The law requires the federal government for the first time to start negotiating directly with companies about the prices they charge for some of Medicare's most expensive drugs. The process has drawn legal challenges from drugmakers and heavy criticism from Republicans in Congress. It's also a centerpiece of Biden's reelection pitch as he seeks a second term in office by touting his work to lower costs for Americans at a time when the country has struggled with inflation. Biden to attend next month's G-20 summit in New Delhi Biden plans to deliver a speech on health care costs from the White House after the announcement. He'll be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris. More than 52 million people who are either 65 or older or have certain severe disabilities or illnesses get prescription drug coverage through Medicare's Part D program, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. About 9% of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older said in 2021 that they did not fill a prescription or skipped a drug dose due to cost, according to research by the Commonwealth Fund, which studies health care issues. CMS aims to negotiate the lowest maximum fair price for drugs on the list released Tuesday. That could help some patients who have coverage but still face big bills like high deductible payments when they get a prescription. Currently, pharmacy benefit managers that run Medicare prescription plans negotiate rebates off a drug's price. Those rebates sometimes help reduce premiums customers pay for coverage. But they may not change what a patient spends at the pharmacy counter. PM Hasina writes to US President Biden expressing deep sadness over Maui wildfire devastation The new drug price negotiations aim "to basically make drugs more affordable while also still allowing for profits to be made," said Gretchen Jacobson, who researches Medicare issues at Commonwealth. Drug companies that refuse to be a part of the new negotiation process will be heavily taxed. The pharmaceutical industry has been gearing up for months to fight these rules. Already, the plan faces several lawsuits, including complaints filed by drugmakers Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb and a key lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA. PhRMA said in a federal court complaint filed earlier this year that the act forces drugmakers to agree to a "government-dictated price" under the threat of a heavy tax and gives too much price-setting authority to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. PhRMA representatives also have said pharmacy benefit managers can still restrict access to drugs with negotiated prices by moving the drugs to a tier of their formulary — a list of covered drugs — that would require higher out-of-pocket payments. Pharmacy benefit managers also could require patients to try other drugs first or seek approval before a prescription can be covered. Biden heads west for a policy victory lap, drawing an implicit contrast with Trump Republican lawmakers also have blasted the Biden administration for its plan, saying companies might pull back on introducing new drugs that could be subjected to future haggling. They've also questioned whether the government knows enough to suggest prices for drugs. CMS will start its negotiations on drugs for which it spends the most money. The drugs also must be ones that don't have generic competitors and are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. CMS plans to meet this fall with drugmakers that have a drug on its list, and government officials say they also plan to hold patient-focused listening sessions. By February 2024, the government will make its first offer on a maximum fair price and then give drugmakers time to respond. Any negotiated prices won't take hold until 2026. More drugs could be added to the program in the coming years.  

In the past week, several shootings in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Florida, and California have claimed eight lives, not including the shooters. Most recently, on Sunday early morning, a shooting occurred at a restaurant in downtown Louisville, the U.S. state of Kentucky, killing one and injuring six. No arrests have been made. Police are asking the public with information on the suspect or suspects to call their anonymous tip line, according to local media. On Saturday afternoon, a racially motivated shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, the U.S. state of Florida, left at least four people dead, including the shooter. Read: N. Korea's Kim calls for readiness to smash US-led invasion plot, as US trains with South and Japan The shooting happened blocks away from Edward Waters University, a historically black college. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said in a press conference that the victims -- two men and one woman -- were all black people. The 21-year-old white gunman Ryan Palmeter lived in Clay County, Florida, with his parents. He committed shooting with a high-powered rifle and a handgun, wearing a tactical vest, according to police. U.S. media reported Palmeter bought these weapons legally despite a past involuntary commitment for a mental health exam. He left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his "disgusting ideology of hate" and his motive for the attack. Read: 3 US Marines killed, 20 injured in an aircraft crash in Australia during a training exercise Palmeter, who shot himself after the attack, was believed to have acted alone, according to police. "We must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday. On Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered at prayer vigils and in church for Jacksonville shooting victims. Local media reported Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the GOP nomination for president, was loudly booed as he addressed the vigil. He signed a bill in April to allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one without a permit. The shooting date coincides with the fifth anniversary of a racist crime in Jacksonville, when another gunman opened fire during a video game tournament, killing two people before fatally shooting himself. The shooting also coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, a landmark civil rights event in the U.S. capital. Read: Authorities say 4 people dead in shooting at California biker bar Another shooting took place on Wednesday evening, in which retired Ventura police sergeant John Snowling, 59, shot dead three people and himself and injured six, at a historic biker bar in Trabuco Canyon, 90 km south of downtown Los Angeles. Among the wounded was the shooter's wife Marie Snowling, who was his intended target, officials have said. Marie's dining companion was found shot dead on the scene. When sheriff's deputies arrived minutes after the shooting began, Snowling began shooting at the deputies, who then returned fire and killed him, police said. Marie Snowling filed for divorce in December 2022. Under California community property laws, she would have been in line for half of John Snowling's pension accrued during their years of marriage. Gun violence has been a divisive and deadly issue in U.S. society for long. Deaths from gun-related injuries have been on successive increase in the United States since 2004, with 2021 hitting a record high of 48,830, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Aug. 1, more than 25,000 people had died from gun violence in the United States this year, which is an average of roughly 118 deaths each day, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Among the deaths, 879 were teens and 170 were children.

 Rising trade barriers. Aging populations. A broad transition from carbon-spewing fossil fuels to renewable energy. The prevalence of such trends across the world could intensify global inflation pressures in the coming years and make it harder for the Federal Reserve and other central banks to meet their inflation targets. That concern was a theme sounded in several high-profile speeches and economic studies presented Friday and Saturday at the Fed’s annual conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Read more: Why inflation persists at a higher level in Bangladesh For decades, the global economy had been moving toward greater integration, with goods flowing more freely between the United States and its trading partners. Lower-wage production overseas allowed Americans to enjoy inexpensive goods and kept inflation low, though at the expense of many U.S. manufacturing jobs. Since the pandemic, though, that trend has shown signs of reversing. Multinational corporations have been shifting their supply chains away from China. They are seeking instead to produce more items — particularly semiconductors, crucial for the production of autos and electronic goods — in the United States, with the encouragement of massive subsidies by the Biden administration. Read more: Ex-governors optimistic MPS can claw back inflation, implementation the key At the same time, large-scale investments in renewable energies could prove disruptive, at least temporarily, by increasing government borrowing and demand for raw materials, thereby heightening inflation. Much of the world's population is aging, and older people are less likely to keep working. Those trends could act as supply shocks, similar to the shortages of goods and labor that accelerated inflation during the rebound from the pandemic recession. “The new environment sets the stage for larger relative price shocks than we saw before the pandemic,” Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said in a speech Friday. “If we face both higher investment needs and greater supply constraints, we are likely to see stronger price pressures in markets like commodities — especially for the metals and minerals that are crucial for green technologies.” This would complicate the work of the ECB, the Fed and other central banks whose mandates are to keep price increases in check. Nearly all central banks are still struggling to curb the high inflation that intensified starting in early 2021 and has only partly subsided. “We are living in this world in which we could expect to have more and maybe bigger supply shocks,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said in an interview. “All of these things tend to make it harder to produce stuff and make it more costly. And that is definitely the configuration that central banks dislike the most.” The shifting patterns in global trade patterns sparked the most attention during Saturday's discussions at the Jackson Hole conference. A paper presented by Laura Alfaro, an economist at Harvard Business School, found that after decades of growth, China's share of U.S. imports fell 5% from 2017 to 2022. Her research attributed the decline to tariffs imposed by the United States and the efforts of large U.S. companies to find other sources of goods and parts after China's pandemic shutdowns disrupted its output. Those imports came largely from such other countries as Vietnam, Mexico and Taiwan, which have better relations with the United States than does China — a trend known as “friendshoring.” Read more: Persistent inflation, rising interest rates will weigh on global economy, OECD predicts Despite all the changes, U.S. imports reached an all-time high in 2022, suggesting that overall trade has remained high. “We are not deglobalizing yet,” Alfaro said. “We are seeing a looming ‘Great Reallocation' " as trade patterns shift. She noted that there are also tentative signs of “reshoring” — the return of some production to the United States. Alfaro said the United States is importing more parts and unfinished goods than it did before the pandemic, evidence that more final assembly is occurring domestically. And the decline of U.S. manufacturing jobs, she said, appears to have bottomed out. Yet Alfaro cautioned that these changes bring downsides as well: In the past five years, the cost of goods from Vietnam has increased about 10% and from Mexico about 3%, adding to inflationary pressures. In addition, she said, China has boosted its investment in factories in Vietnam and Mexico. Moreover, other countries that ship goods to the United States also import parts from China. Those developments suggest that the United States hasn't necessarily reduced its economic ties with China. Read more: UK inflation falls to lowest level in over a year but food prices keep decline in check At the same time, some global trends could work in the other direction and cool inflation in the coming years. One such factor is weakening growth in China, the world's second-largest economy after the United States. With its economy struggling, China will buy less oil, minerals and other commodities, a trend that should put downward pressure on the global costs of those goods. Kazuo Ueda, governor of the Bank of Japan, said during a discussion Saturday that while China's sputtering growth is “disappointing," it stems mainly from rising defaults in its bloated property sector, rather than changes to trade patterns. Ueda also criticized the increased use of subsidies to support domestic manufacturing, as the United States had done in the past two years. “The widespread use of industrial policy globally could just lead to inefficient factories,” Ueda said, because they wouldn't necessarily be located in the most cost-effective sites. Read more: Economists wary about finance minister’s 6 percent inflation target for FY24 And Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, defended globalization and also denounced rising subsidies and trade barriers. Global trade, she asserted, often restrains inflation and has helped significantly reduce poverty. “Predictable trade," she said, "is a source of disinflationary pressure, reduced market volatility and increased economic activity. ...Economic fragmentation would be painful.”

A United States Marine Corps aircraft crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing three Marines and injuring 20 during a multination training exercise officials said. Three had been confirmed dead on Melville Island and five of the 23 on board were flown in serious condition 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the mainland city of Darwin for hospital treatment after the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed around 9:30 a.m. local time, a statement from the Marines said. “Recovery efforts are ongoing,” the statement said, adding the cause of the crash was under investigation. Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft had been deployed to return from the remote location with the rest of the injured, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said. One of the injured was undergoing surgery at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said around six hours after the crash.. Read: PM mourns loss of lives in China aircraft crash Some were critically injured and were being triaged on arrival at Darwin's airport, she said. "We acknowledge that this is a terrible incident,” Fyles said. “The Northern Territory government stands by to offer whatever assistance is required." Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said only Americans were injured in the crash when happened during Exercise Predators Run, which involves the militaries of the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor. “The initial reports suggest that the incident involves just U.S. defense force personnel,” Albanese said. “Our focus as a government and as the department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time,” he added. Melville is part of the Tiwi Islands, which along with Darwin are the focus of the exercise that involves 2,500 troops. Read: Light aircraft crashes in Russia The Osprey that crashed was one of two that had flown from Darwin to Melville on Sunday, Murphy said. Around 150 U.S. Marines are currently based in Darwin and up to 2,500 rotate through the city every year. The U.S. military was also taking part in a multination military exercise in July when four Australia personnel were killed in an army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash off the northeast Australian coast. Read more: 2 killed as aircraft crashes during pesticide spray in Pakistan

For former President Donald Trump, a picture is worth... more than $7 million. Trump's campaign says he has raised $7.1 million since Thursday when he was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in the state and became the first former president in U.S. history to ever have a mug shot taken. Spokesman Steven Cheung said that, on Friday alone, the campaign brought in $4.18 million — its highest-grossing day to date. The record haul underscores how Trump's legal woes have been a fundraising boon for his campaign, even as his political operation has spent tens of millions on his defense. The mounting legal charges have also failed to dent Trump's standing in the Republican presidential primary, with the former president now routinely beating his rivals by 30 to 50 points in polls. While Trump described his appearance Thursday as a “terrible experience” and said posing for the historic mug shot was “not a comfortable feeling,” his campaign immediately seized on its fundraising power. Read: One image, one face, one American moment: The Donald Trump mug shot Before he had even flown home to New Jersey, his campaign was using it in fundraising pitches to supporters. Trump amplified that message both on his Truth Social site and by returning to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, for the first time in two-and-a-half years to share the image and direct supporters to a fundraising page. Within hours, the campaign had also released a new line of merchandise featuring the image that began with t-shirts and now includes beer Koozies, bumper stickers, a signed poster, bumper stickers and mug shot mugs. Cheung said that contributions from those who had purchased merchandise or donated without prompting skyrocketed, especially after Trump's tweet. The new contributions, he said, had helped push the campaign's fundraising haul over the last three weeks to close to $20 million. Trump in early August was indicted in Washington on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Read: Trump mugshot released in Georgia arrest for election plot case At the same time, Trump’s political operation has been burning through tens of millions of dollars on lawyers as he battles charges in four separate jurisdictions. Recent campaign finance filing showed that, while Trump raised over $53 million during the first half of 2023 — a period in which his first two criminal indictments were turned into a rallying cry that sent his fundraising soaring — his political committees have paid out at least $59.2 million to more than 100 lawyers and law firms since January 2021. Read more: Trump says he will surrender Thursday on Georgia charges tied to efforts to overturn 2020 election

A camera clicks. In a fraction of a second, the shutter opens and then closes, freezing forever the image in front of it. When the camera shutter blinked inside an Atlanta jail on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second. Left behind: an enduring image that will appear in history books long after Donald Trump is gone. Trump mugshot released in Georgia arrest for election plot case “It will be forever part of the iconography of being alive in this time,” said Marty Kaplan, a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications. In the photo, Trump confronts the camera in front of a bland gray backdrop, his eyes meeting the lens in an intense glare. He's wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, his shoulders squared, his head tilted slightly toward the camera. The sheriff's logo has been digitally added above his right shoulder. Some of the 18 others charged with him in Georgia smiled in their booking photos like they were posing for a yearbook. Not Trump. His defiance is palpable, as if he’s staring down a nemesis through the lens. “It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong," he later told Fox News Digital about the moment. Trump is set to surrender at a Georgia jail on charges he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss NOT LIKE ANY OTHER PHOTOGRAPH Trump facing charges is by now a familiar sight of 2023 to Americans who watched him stand before a judge in a New York courtroom or saw watercolor sketches from the inside of federal courthouses in Miami and Washington, where cameras aren’t allowed. This is different. As Anderson Cooper put it on CNN: “The former president of the United States has an inmate number.” P01135809, to be exact. But until he surrendered to face charges of trying to steal the 2020 election in Georgia, his fourth indictment this year, he avoided having to pose for the iconic booking photo like millions accused of crimes before him. Never mind that Trump, like all Americans, is innocent until proven guilty in court; the mug shot, and all it connotes, packs an extra emotional and cultural punch. Trump says he will surrender Thursday on Georgia charges tied to efforts to overturn 2020 election A mug shot is a visceral representation of the criminal justice system, a symbol of lost freedom. It permanently memorializes one of the worst days of a person's life, a moment not meant for a scrapbook. It must be particularly foreign to a man born into privilege, who famously loves to be in control, who is highly attentive to his image and who rose to be the most powerful figure in the world. “`Indictment’ is a sort of bloodless word. And words are pale compared to images,” said Kaplan, a former speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale and Hollywood screenwriter. “A mug shot is a genre. Its frame is, `This is a deer caught in the headlights. This is the crook being nailed.' It’s the walk of shame moment.” HE IS ALREADY LEVERAGING THE MOMENT Trump is unlikely to treat the mug shot as a moment of shame as he seeks a second term in the White House while fighting criminal charges in four jurisdictions. His campaign has reported a spike in contributions each time he’s been indicted. And the imagery itself? Trump hasn't shied away from it. In fact, his campaign concocted one long before it became real. Months before he was photographed in Georgia on Thursday evening, his campaign used the prospect of a mug shot as a fundraising opportunity. For $36, anyone can buy a T-shirt with a fake booking photo of Trump and the words “not guilty.” Dozens of similar designs are available to purchase online, including many that appeal to Trump’s critics. Now they have a real one to work with. Within minutes of the mug shot's release, Trump's campaign used it in a fundraising appeal on its website. “BREAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE,” reads the subject line of the campaign’s latest fundraising email, which advertises a new T-shirt with the image. And this quote: “This mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of America’s defiance of tyranny.” In a show of solidarity, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a photo of herself smiling broadly in front of a gray background, the sheriff's logo in the top left corner to mimic the jail's style — essentially her DIY mug. “I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis," she said, a swipe at the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who persuaded a grand jury to indict Trump. Recent history is full of politicians seeking political dividends from their booking photos. They’ve offered large smiles or defiant smirks and tried to make the best of their predicament. Yet this is one of just 45 presidents in all of U.S. history — not only someone who held the keys to the most powerful government in the world, but who held a position that for many these days, both at home and overseas, personifies the United States. To see that face looking at a camera whose lens he is not seeking out — that's a potent moment. Trump says he will skip GOP presidential primary debates “There’s a power to the still image, which is inarguable,” said Mitchell Stevens, a professor emeritus at New York University who has written a book about the place imagery holds in modern society and how it is supplanting the word. “It kind of freezes a moment, and in this case it’s freezing an unhappy moment for Donald Trump," Stevens said. “And it’s not something he can click away. It’s not something he can simply brush off. That moment is going to live on. And it’s entirely possible that it will end up as the image that history preserves of this man.”