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Hall drives an enormous Prevost bus wrapped in Trump imagery that’s so flashy that people often assume it belongs to the President. I’ve been offered towing chains.”īuddy Hall, a Mississippi real-estate investor, told me that even “Trump 2024”-branded products struggled to find a market last year-partly because some people saw them as an admission that the 2020 election would not, in fact, be overturned. “Sometimes it’s ‘Screw Biden,’ sometimes it’s ‘Biden Sucks and So Do You for Voting for Him,’ sometimes it’s ‘Fuck Biden, Fuck Harris, and Fuck You for Voting for Them.’ ” Then he corrected me: he didn’t sell his flags-he traded them, which meant, he believed, that he was not subject to commerce regulations. I asked an elderly sovereign citizen in a salmon-colored sweater what his most popular items were. Shoppers like the “Jesus Is My King, Trump Is My President” shirts, but they also don’t mind a little vulgarity. The red MAGA hat, although still ubiquitous, is no longer the best-seller several venders told me that, these days, anti-Biden merch is more popular than pro-Trump options. Trump has a marketer’s instinct for catchphrases and in-jokes the merchandising apparatus that’s sprung up around him is nimble enough that the meme of the moment-“ Let’s Go, Brandon,” for example-can make its way onto shirts within days. “By next year, sales are going to skyrocket,” he said. At first, he thought he wasn’t suited for the job-“I was a shy individual,” he said-but soon “it became a whole life style.” For the past five months, he’s been living on the road in a new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van he bought with his earnings, driving from rally to gun show to rally across Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama. After COVID-19 put a damper on that work, a friend recruited him to help sell Trump merch. He used to work as a mover in South Carolina. “Be deplorable-make yourself look adorable!” he called to potential customers. Kris Walden, who had a scraggly beard, weaved among the parked cars, towing a folding cart stocked with hats and hoodies. The area outside the gates had a festive, tailgate atmosphere.
They’d been in the game long enough to perfect their setups-comfortable camp chairs, well-stocked coolers, big speakers blasting classic rock.
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But the official wares are supplemented by a parallel economy of ersatz Trump-branded ephemera sold at roadside stands, state-fair booths, strip-mall stores, online marketplaces, and by a caravan of itinerant salespeople who follow him from rally to rally.Īt the rally in Arizona, Trump’s first of the year, venders lined the path from the parking lot to the entrance of the venue, the Canyon Moon Ranch. According to his former campaign manager, by spring of 2019, he’d sold nearly a million red MAGA hats, priced at forty-five dollars each. The “SHOP” section of Trump’s Web site features hats and T-shirts, as well as stemless wineglasses, plastic straws, playing cards, and Christmas stockings emblazoned with Trump’s name. The former President made good use of the office’s opportunities for merchandising. Although his stock includes gay-pride, Tupac Shakur, and Antifa flags, the Trump campaign, Presidency, and post-Presidency have been particularly good for business.
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Three years ago, with the market for flags booming, David went into business for himself. Back then, he helped his stepfather sell banners to people who wanted to proclaim their allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys or to the state of New Mexico, among other things. “We drove all over, looking for the best spot.” The “Save America” rally in Florence, Arizona, hadn’t officially begun, but he’d already sold sixty Trump-themed flags, most for $39.95.ĭavid, a first-generation American whose family moved to the Southwest from Mexico when he was a child, has been in the flag business since he was fifteen. “I’ve been awake for twenty-four hours,” David, a roadside flag vender, told me cheerfully on Saturday, January 15th. On rally days, the Trump-merchandise seller’s work begins before dawn.