Former President Donald Trump hasn't been on Twitter, now called X, since Jan. 8, 2021, after the prior Twitter owners banned him in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. 

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he reinstated (in the interest of free speech) many of the people the prior owners had banned and suppressed, including Trump. But that didn't tempt Trump back. Until Thursday, that is, in the wake of the former president having to surrender in Georgia regarding the fourth indictment in the seeming never-ending effort to take him down. I think perhaps this was the effort that broke the camel's back. They charged him in Georgia on Thursday for challenging the 2020 election. Yet, they are effectively interfering in the election in 2024 by charging him. 

I think that was what moved Trump to finally want to make a statement again on Twitter. And it was a simple yet powerful one. It featured his mugshot, with a determined face, with the messages "Election Interference" and "Never Surrender." 

https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023

As we reported earlier, he called out the election interference before he went in to be booked. 

What they're doing is election interference. They're trying to interfere with an election. There's never been anything like it in our country before. This is their way of campaigning. And this is one instance, but you have three other instances. It's election interference.

Many wondered if Trump would smile in the mugshot or what he might do for the picture. Donald Trump Jr. explains the look. 

Hey Deep State - He's coming for you.

See you on January 20th, 2025. pic.twitter.com/Zhiagw4v7J

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 25, 2023

It's clear he wanted to spit in their eye with the look and call them out on their weaponization of the government against him. 

I can already see people will be clamoring for t-shirts and mugs adorned with this picture, and Trump links to his fundraising page in the tweet. So great job, Georgia officials behind this, you have just helped his fundraising a little bit more. If you thought he gained points in the polls from the indictments, the mugshot is going to bump him up still more. 

NEVER SURRENDER!

BUY NOW: https://t.co/zsC1UmUKn6

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 25, 2023

It's only been out under an hour as of this writing, and the post already has almost 6 million views. As we noted earlier, his interview with Tucker Carlson instead of the GOP presidential debate got over 200 million X views. It now has over 248 million. Views on X mean at least some engagement in the post, although it may not mean that they watched the entire thing. But it's a tremendous amount. The mugshot is likely to fire up more people over the weaponization issue, and people weren't shy about weighing in on the subject. 

If you think this is a win for those who got America here, you are soooo wrong https://t.co/IfFWmJjSx7

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) August 25, 2023

As Gutfeld said in the above tweet, it's a bad mistake when you do things that only feed the strength of your political opponents and rally more people to his side. Not just Trump's side, but against this whole going after political opponents that we're seeing across every level of the government. I reported earlier about the Biden DOJ unbelievably targeting Elon Musk's SpaceX for "discrimination" for not hiring "asylees and refugees." Yes, they are trying to take out Trump, but they want to suppress us all.