Los Angeles (AFP) - There are countless pictures of Donald Trump, but if New York police snap his mug shot on Tuesday, it will instantly pass into history as one of the most famous.

The former president of the United States would join a select band of politicians, celebrities and sports stars whose police booking photo at least partially defines their legacy.

No recounting of the life of OJ Simpson, Jane Fonda or former presidential hopeful John Edwards is complete without the photograph taken when they were arrested.

So would it be with Trump, who is expected to be formally charged Tuesday over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 election campaign.

Details about exactly what happens when the 76-year-old surrenders are unclear, but a police booking routinely includes recording the suspect’s fingerprints and snapping two photographs – one front-facing, and one side-on.

American authorities frequently release these mug shots to the press, imprinting them on the public’s conscious.

One of the most famous mug shots in history is the Los Angeles Police Department’s picture of former American footballer OJ Simpson, taken when they arrested him on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

A week later it was the cover of Time magazine, and now adorns everything from t-shirts to custom-made electric guitars.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda used her 1970 mugshot – taken on her arrest for (subsequently dropped) charges of assaulting a police officer – to strike a defiant pose, her fist raised in the same protest she had waged against the Vietnam war.

She continues to sell sweatshirts, t-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the picture on her website.

“I sure got a lot of mileage out of that arrest,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2018.

- Disastrous -

Sometimes the mug shot freezes in time the disastrous consequences that led to the arrest.

Think of Tiger Woods’ 2017 arrest for driving under the influence in California – his puffy face, heavily bagged eyes and several days’ worth of stubble testament to what he says was the effect of powerful prescription painkillers. A few short years before, he had dominated golf, widely acknowledged as one of the sport’s greatest ever players.

Or think of actor Nick Nolte, whose lank, unkempt hair made him look like he’d been living in a hedge when he was arrested in 2002 for reckless driving, hopped up on street drug GHB. A decade earlier he had been named the “Sexiest Man Alive”.

Or of Hugh Grant’s sheepish expression in the photo LA police officers took when they caught him in a car with a sex worker on Sunset Boulevard. He was in a long-term relationship with Liz Hurley at the time.

- Politicians -

Trump would be the first former president whose photo lives in police files, but not the first politician.

Gratingly, these people even smile when they are being booked.

John Edwards, whose 2008 effort to become the Democratic Party nominee for the White House foundered, was arrested in 2011 over charges he misused campaign funds to hide the existence of mistress and child.

(A jury found the charges unconvincing.)

Texas Governor Rick Perry also wore a grin in his booking photo when he was arrested in 2014 for alleged abuse of power.

The charges were later dismissed.

Whether he flashes his perfect-teeth smile, or opts for the stern scowl he is said to like for its supposed projection of strength, Trump’s booking photo – if it happens – is sure to be a classic of its kind.

And like OJ Simpson’s, it will be front page news.

And like Jane Fonda’s, it will almost certainly be available as a t-shirt very soon.

Perhaps even from Trump’s own website.