Trump lawyer, Alina Habba's swimsuit photo sparks bizarre debate

A photo of Donald Trump’s lawyer wearing a bikini has sparked a bizarre online debate about her proficiency.

The former controversial US president is involved in a whole host of legal battles as he faces four trials and six lawsuits.

39-year-old lawyer Alina Habba has been representing Trump in a civil defamation trial brought by E Jean Carroll, after joining his legal team in 2021. The pair reportedly met at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey country club.

After an image of her wearing a bikini and sarong emerged on X/Twitter, Trump supporters appeared to suggest that her conventional attractiveness means she must be an excellent lawyer.

In psychology, physical appearance is linked to the halo effect – the cognitive bias where those who are considered attractive tend to rate higher on other positive traits.

On social media, one viral post on X/Twitter, read: “This is Trump’s Lawyer. Eat your heart out Biden.”

The post led to a whole host of mockery from people pointing out that you do not have to be attractive to be good at your job.

One person joked: “Vitally important to win the swimsuit portion of legal proceedings.”

“What is this supposed to mean?” another perplexed reader commented.

Another said: “And if legal cases were decided based on who is most likely to be cast in Flashdance, that would mean something.”

Someone else pointed out: “We live in such truly insane times. like can you imagine Watergate but like, ‘it’s over, Nixon’s lawyer is so hot,’ being the public discourse.”

One person argued: “Trump supporters not beating the ‘We will objectify a woman every chance we can’ accusations.”

Several eagle-eyed viewers pointed out the questionable editing of the image that appeared to have altered the shape of the building behind Habba.

“I would never trust a lawyer who can’t figure out how to photoshop their body better than this,” someone joked.

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings