While there are still some unchecked names on your holiday gift list, let’s talk about merch.
Merch is a shortening of merchandise, which, over years of rock concerts and sporting events, has evolved a more precise meaning. As Dictionary.com puts it, merch usually refers to goods “marketed to a particular fan base.” Merch is still thought of as a promotional tool, but as profits from commercial recordings have plummeted, merch has also become an essential part of the revenue stream for a lot of musical groups.
There has always been political merch in the form of campaign tee shirts and the stuff sold by small-time entrepreneurs at state conventions. Before Donald Trump, however, political merch hadn’t made that leap from promotional tool to revenue stream.
There have been a lot of stories about Trump’s failures in ventures like Trump Steaks and Trump University, but his financial success with political merch is seldom fully recognized.
In his memoir, son-in-law Jared Kushner boasts of how he was instrumental in bumping sales of MAGA hats from $8,000 a day to $80,000 a day, covering most of the overhead costs of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Sales this year are reported to be even greater.
If you’re shopping for a deal, by the way, the classic red “Make America Great Again” hats have been reduced from $40 to $28 over at the online Trump Store. The store has expanded into dozens of items, several with a seasonal theme. You can purchase Trump silk pajamas, Elon Dark MAGA hats, MAGA scarves, or Dancing Trump Christmas tree ornaments. Then there is the Trump Coins website, where you can buy a commemorative coin with $30 worth of silver for $100.
Is the Bible merch? It is when you can collect $300,000 for putting your name on it, as the incoming president did this year for the Greenwood, or God Bless the USA Bible, more commonly referred to now as the Trump Bible. In Oklahoma, state school superintendent Ryan Walters has been on a crusade to have a Bible placed in every classroom in the state. Bid specifications call for a Bible that matches the Trump Bible exactly (King James Version if you’re curious) and not the Bible you could buy elsewhere for less. The Greenwood Bible (after co-sponsor Lee Greenwood) sells for $59.99, or $1,000 for a copy autographed by Trump.
Trump reported making much more money from his own books this year: $4.5 million for “Letters to Trump” and $505,763 for “A MAGA Journey.” When you total these up with all the engraved Trump whiskey glasses and MAGA Christmas sweaters, you’re talking about more than just a side hustle. A quick look around the internet leads to the suspicion that a lot of Trump merch is unauthorized, but even then it’s promoting the brand.
While Trump is the undisputed emperor of merch, several of his disciples have shown an inclination toward merch, none more so than Kash Patel, Trump’s choice to head the FBI.
Patel has promoted “vaccine reversal” treatments online, authored three children’s books featuring Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden as villains and himself and rightwing activist Dinesh D’Souza, and has his own “K$H” logo on items like his Don’t Tread On Me tee shirt.
This is hucksterism, without question, but it has proved to be highly effective hucksterism. Whether you’re an Atlanta Hawks fan or you’re into Vampire Weekend, buying their merch makes you even more a part of that particular fan base — more so, for most people, than just being given something. Why should it be any different for political merch?
Political merch isn’t going to work so well for congressmen who are known for their committee work or governors who work within their state budgets and aren’t aggressive self-promoters like Patel. What it really needs is the lure of celebrity, and that’s what Trump has been particularly good at exploiting at a time when politics and entertainment are growing ever closer.
