Now that Trump has entered the second term of his presidency, he has released an interesting assortment of merchandise on his website, Trump Store. He has officially put out Trump 2028, 45-47, Trump Social Club, Golden Age of America, Gulf of America merch items, etc. Each new piece of clothing seems more self-obsessed than the next. From just a simple shirt with his famous words “Make America Great Again”, to a collection of candy and cookies with his branding on it. Though most items may seem like harmless pieces of clothing, they definitely have some underlying meanings.
The words, “Trump 2028,” have been very popular amongst the president’s supporters, as they have this foolish belief that he will run for president again in 2028. Even though the 22nd Amendment makes him ineligible. Donald Trump has already served two terms as the United States President, and he legally cannot serve another term unless he intends to defy the US Constitution. With how his presidency has been going, I wouldn’t put it past him.
Donald Trump also has many merchandise items with the numbers 45-47. Those numbers represent the two non-consecutive presidencies of Trump, and how people don’t know if they should refer to him as the 45th or the 47th president. Another popular piece is the “Gulf of America”, referring to Trump’s recent executive change to turn the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. He now has a separate website called Trump Watches that sells watches with Trump’s name, and the numbers “45-47”. He has continued to sell these luxury watches even after the recent government shutdown, which has affected thousands of workers all across the country. It adds to his self-serving agenda.
He started to sell Halloween-themed “Make America Great Again” hats, with their recent fall collection spread all over the front page. The website is even selling Trump gummies, chocolate, cookies, and jelly beans. The whole thing is self-obsessed, but it’s clear that he cares more about himself than others. Just recently, Trump threw a “Great Gatsby” party, the infamous theme being “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody”. This party gained a lot of attention and criticism from the media, considering the timing. With wars and genocide happening right now in Palestine and Sudan, the theme was extremely inconsiderate and frankly stupid.
President Trump has also been the first president since Thomas Jefferson to sell his own version of the Bible, called “God Bless the USA”. Most presidents before him have sold merchandise as well, but never like this. Barack Obama is a good example of a former president who sold merchandise. The major difference between these two presidents was the type of merchandise they sold. While Obama sells posters for progress and Obama Foundation shirts, Trump is selling t-shirts with his mugshot on it, and the word “Daddy” in bolded red.
The overarching question here is where all of this money is going. It’s okay to have some funny shirts if the money is going towards a good cause, but there is no way of knowing that. There is nothing mentioned on the website that explicitly says where the money is going to. All of the profits from the Trump store are currently going to the Trump Organization, which is managed by his sons, Eric and Donald Jr. The Trump Organization is a real estate conglomerate owned by Donald Trump. Basically, this means that all of the money coming from the Trump Store is most likely supporting his hotels, golf courses, casinos, and residential towers. So it seems to me that Trump is the reverse Robin Hood story: instead of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, he is manipulating the poor to fatten the rich.
