What's behind Trump's last-minute merch push?

Donald Trump has long been an innovator in the field of branded marketing and merchandise, with product lines that well precede his current status as a once and potentially future president. Everything from beef to boardgames and even bottled water has all borne the vaunted Trump brand — and the implied promise therein of a similarly luxuriant lifestyle to his.

In spite of this lifetime of branded sales pitches, the past few weeks have nevertheless seen a marked uptick in high-end Trump-hawked items, even as the 2024 presidential campaign enters its final stretch. Since late September, Trump has cut promotions for silver coins (“The ONLY OFFICIAL coin designed by me”), luxury watches (“these Watches are truly special — You’re going to love them”) and a cryptocurrency exchange (“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind”) — all on the heels, as it were, of this year’s earlier “Never Surrender High-Tops” sneaker launch.

That Trump would lend his name and brand to a suite of merchandise is not, in and of itself, particularly shocking. But with time quickly running out until Election Day next month, the Republican nominee’s focus on unrelated commercial products seems a notable, if somewhat confounding, distraction from his campaign for the White House. At the same time, by hawking self-branded products during a presidential race, Trump has once again muddied the legal and ethical waters when it comes to fundraising and electioneering.

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Many of the recent Trump-branded products are sold on websites that note “proceeds from their sales do not directly benefit Trump or his campaign,” NY1 said. However, the products are “subject to a ‘paid license agreement,'” which is the “same mechanism that allowed Trump, well before he entered politics, to profit for years from sales of everything from water, vodka and steaks.” While it’s “unclear where the watches are being manufactured or the maker,” the TheBestWatchesOnEarth LLC company licensed to use Trump’s name on the product line “lists its address as a suite located in a building in Sheridan, Wyoming, the same address as the company selling Trump’s $499 sneakers,” CBS News said. “The suite is near a Wendy’s fast-food location and Sherwin-Williams paint store.”

“There’s no precedent in history at all, and certainly not in modern history, for somebody who has monetized the office or running for office of president the way he has,” former Office of Government Ethics general counsel Don Fox said to The Washington Post. His campaign “feels like it only exists to support his true passion: bringing back the late-night TV infomercial,” said New York magazine. In regards to Trump’s newly launched cryptocurrency exchange, “taking a pro-crypto stance is not necessarily troubling,” said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington spokesperson Jordan Libowitz to the Associated Press. “The troubling aspect is doing it while starting a way to personally benefit from it” — particularly if he wins in November. After initially panning cryptocurrency, Trump is now leading his campaign’s “effort to build what it calls a ‘crypto army’ leading up to Election Day,” the AP said.

Trump’s branded sales are part of an “extraordinary effort to mix his personal finances with his bid to return to political power,” The New York Times said. In particular, he does much of his campaigning on Truth Social, a “social platform owned by the Trump Media & Technology Group” where “since he announced his new election effort” he has hawked a host of products “all branded with his name, image or campaign themes.”

With Kamala Harris showing signs of taking the lead in recent polls, the Trump camp “appears to be scrambling to make hay while the sun still shines,” Vanity Fair said. While Trump largely is “interested in licensing deals and one-off deals where he does not have to make large time commitments,” his focus on personal branding and sales “also further a narrative that Democrats say resonates with voters: that the former president only cares about himself,” The Washington Post said. Win or lose, it’s unlikely that dynamic is set to change anytime soon.

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