Friends Who Bought TrumpMugShot.com Web Domain In 2018 Set to Cash-In

A pair of entrepreneurial friends who purchased the web domain TrumpMugShot.com five years ago are looking to cash-in following the former president's arrest in Georgia.

Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to have his mugshot taken after he was arrested on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 general election results.

The resulting picture, taken at Fulton County Jail in Georgia, with Trump scowling at the camera, sparked a wave of memes and jokes.

Some believe the mugshot was "carefully staged" by Trump to send a clear message to prosecutors as well as his supporters. The 77-year-old has already begun commercializing the image with official merchandise featuring the image.

Few people could have predicted what has unfolded over the past week, but two friends did. Back in 2018, Nick from Chicago, who works in communications, and a childhood friend who lives in Texas and works in analytics hit upon an idea: buy the website domain TrumpMugShot.com.

"My friends and I have always been interested in buying domains—we've gotten some remarkably stupid ones in the past just as a joke," Nick told Newsweek. "After Michael Cohen got in trouble a few years ago (2018), I pounced on TrumpMugShot... I was shocked it was still available."

Nick asked that his full name not feature in the story because they have full-time jobs and, as he puts it, "politics is incredibly divisive." He said they purchased the domain "in anticipation that it might happen."

"I kept being skeptical that one was ever going to be taken," he said. "He had been indicted a few times and no images ever came from it, so I figured that was going to be the case in Georgia. Then when it came out that it was getting taken, I just thought 'oh c***—we'd better do something with this!'"

Nick doesn't have anything positive or negative to say about the mugshot itself. "I'd say compared to the other people in the indictment, he actually looks pretty good. He tends to take a bunch of serious pictures, and this is very much like that."

He did, however, confirm there had been a significant bump in traffic on the page since Trump's arrest, though they are still finding their feet in terms of monetization.

"Last week, before the booking, we didn't have anything on the site until my friend threw up what's on there now. It was all very last-minute," he said.

At present, they are only selling mugs on the site, but it's gone OK so far. "We've had a few thousand people visit the site and sold a handful of mugs. Maybe $500 worth," he said.

It's not been without its issues though. "Google Ads keeps thinking it's election-related and denying our ads," he said.

The website is being updated though, with his friend in Texas setting up a Shopify and Gelato printing-on-demand service to create more merchandise. "We'll start putting up other things like shirts, hats, and phone cases, but just haven't had capacity yet," he said.

Nick is not convinced Trump will end up serving time. "He's such a public figure that if you just need one person on his side to vote not guilty, that makes it pretty difficult in my mind," he said.

He also doesn't think the mugshot will have much of an impact on Trump's reelection chances. "My guess is that the party base loves it, and never-Trumpers love it too—a weird mix of folks on exact opposite sides uniting (for very different reasons)," he said. "So I think the effect will be pretty minimal and more so weighs on the outcome on the trial."

Ultimately, he and his friend have only one goal in mind with the domain: sell.

"My end goal has always been to just sell it. I've even reached out to some PACs and campaigns, but haven't heard anything. I think selling it to a campaign makes the most amount of sense," he said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has already been some interest in the domain. "Four or five people have reached out to buy, but their prices were either too low or they didn't respond to our price—mid five figures is what we're hoping for."