The email pitch offers Trump donors a chance to buy a MAGA hat, the purchase of which will enter its new owner into a sweepstakes with a chance to win another MAGA hat — this one signed by the former President.
Not only that, but as the email — which purports to come directly from “Donald J. Trump” — exuberantly declares, a hat purchased this week might enjoy even greater significance, the pitch asserts. It could mark a sales milestone, that is.
“We’re about to sell what might be our 3 MILLIONTH MAGA HAT IN HISTORY,” the email claims.
Trump first wore the now iconic hat nearly a decade ago in July of 2015 during a Laredo, Texas visit to the US-Mexico border. Though for a long time it came only in red, it recently took a page out of the marketing books and offered a brand extension — a black version endorsed by Tony Stark manque Elon Musk.
Elon posted his MAGA hat which uses the Fraktur font, popular in nazi Germany. He wore this at a rally meant to evoke the 1939 nazi rally at Madison Square Garden.
He’s telling you who he is. pic.twitter.com/TJzyBF0MLk
— Alejandra Caraballo is on Bluesky/Threads (@Esqueer_) October 28, 2024
The 3 million units sold is offered by Trump as a boast, and it is — as far as political campaign swag goes — a significant mass of merch to have moved.
Yet at the same time it registers, perhaps, as a surprisingly small number for a country grown accustomed to seeing so many photos online and in the news featuring Trump supporters wearing these hats. And so while it’s an impressive number from one perspective, it also begs the question: there are only 3 million of them?
It follows that as a symbol of support, 3 million units spread out over nine-and-a-half years doesn’t add up to a mass movement or a red wave, a fact that may have been reflected in Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020, and the GOP’s failure to pull off a red wave in the 2022 midterms.
Given the slim profit margins on hats, as a pure business venture the MAGA hat machine wouldn’t likely win a lot of offers on Shark Tank. [NOTE: Of course, selling hats is not Trump’s main business — he’s into selling Bibles and gold sneakers and what his opponents and fact-checkers characterize as baseless fables, too.]
Below are some figures that lend perspective to the MAGA hat sales of almost 3 million units over a decade. The first two items on the list — firearms and Taylor Swift — do represent a level of sales that can be translated as a movement.
Guns: 16.7 million firearms were sold in the U.S. in 2023 alone; Americans bought 60 million guns between 2020 and 2022
Music: Taylor Swift‘s first album, released in 2014, has sold 15 million copies
Sneakers: in 2016 the Jordan brand produced $2.8 billion in revenue; in 2023 that number was $6.6 billion
Hats: This Nike golf hat sold 3,000+ units last month on Amazon alone
Burgers: An estimated 550 million Big Macs are sold each year in America
Books: Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes, is said to have sold 500 million copies
Toys/Games: More than 500 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold since its introduction 50 years ago in 1974