President Trump and his family have been coining millions, selling the world on Trump-branded merchandise. Use of the Trump name is unparalleled in political grift.
There are official diamond-studded gold watches for $100,000, Trump “Never Surrender” golden sneakers for $399 and “Make America Great Again” guitars for $1,250. The president has peddled the “God Bless USA Bible” for $59.99. Never mind that those Bibles were printed in China and cost Trump $3 apiece.
The president and his family have generated a retail glut unmatched by any other American politician. The Trumps miss few opportunities to market their wares. The president shows off hats and T-shirts at his political rallies and displays his coins, colognes and cuff links to visiting dignitaries in a room next to the Oval Office.
Trump has been trading on name promotion throughout his entire adult life. He attached “TRUMP” in towering letters to his buildings in the early 1980s. A few years later in 1989, the Trump name adorned a board game and festooned an airline he briefly owned. He even tried – unsuccessfully it turned out — to sell the Trump Steak Connoisseur Collection, an array of cuts priced at $999.
When he entered politics, Trump continued his marketing role. In June 2015, before he stepped from the golden escalator to announce his candidacy, he’d already sunk more than $15,000 turning out T-shirts. He first donned a MAGA hat in July of that same year, usurping the “Make America Great Again” slogan from Ronald Reagan who had it printed on buttons and posters during his 1980s presidential campaigns.
Despite the staggering array of family-backed goods – from golden Trump statuettes to Trump-headed rubber duckies – there has still been room for a bazaar of third-party sellers. The opportunists sell such merch as aprons decorated with the president’s face and Trump-themed coffee beans.
Some of the unofficial merchants sell bootlegged Trump banners and buttons. The market for MAGA merchandise is a volatile one, loosely tied to the president’s popularity. As recently as last year, there were four dozen Trump stores in 22 states selling such items as bullet-shaped saltshakers and scented car fresheners with an image of Trump’s face. Despite a few closures, most unofficial Trump enterprises enjoy major success. What true Trump-lover wouldn’t want a $29.95 plastic statue of their fist-shaking hero?
Trump’s family, as always, has taken a prominent role in the mix. Last year the president prominently displayed his son’s book next to the presidential seal on Air Force One. On Truth Social he posted a link to the book’s Amazon listing. Granddaughter Kai Trump promoted her new clothing line using photos taken in front of the White House.
The president picks and choses whom he’ll back in the continual grifting. He has employed his legal team to fire off cease-and-desist letters to some online merchants. Last year, the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against unnamed sellers based in Asia for offering “inferior imitations” of his official merchandise. One judge issued a default judgment fining those enterprises $100,000 each, but it is uncertain whether the Trump Organization can ever collect. Besides there’s the fact that any Trump product, authorized or not, ends up benefiting the brand.
No other sitting president has tried to capitalize from the office the way Trump has. For members of Congress and most federal employees, using public office for private gain is explicitly forbidden by their agencies’ codes of conduct. There are, however, no comparable rules restraining the U. S. president.
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