Made in China

Banners. Knives. Coins. Clothes. Chess sets.

Made in China

Lots of things to buy at the Trump store.

Every active candidate sells tee shirts. Donald Trump's campaign sells everything.

The banners are made in China.

I am on the Trump mailing list. I get a fundraising solicitation every day and an invitation to buy Trump branded merchandise every other day. This is no accident. At every campaign event for Trump--or any other of the 30-plus presidential candidates I have seen--entry to the event brings a person by a table where one writes ones name, email address, phone number, and zip code. Candidates don't ask for money at these events. The events are for winning your support. The money part comes later, with repeated emails and text messages, and with Trump, opportunities to buy stuff.

Click: Watch Trump-Pence banners get made.

Trump sells everything, and beginning this week, Trump added an item: branded face masks. 

A curious thing about the merchandise is that at least some of it is made in China. Here is a video showing it being made in a crowded factory, with women sewing up the corners and folding the finished flags..   

At events in 2015 and early 2016 Trump had neglected to have a campaign division devoted to selling "official" campaign material. He mostly had a roadshow, not a staffed out organization. Entrepreneurs had do-it-yourself paraphernalia to sell outside his events, sold from the trunks of cars and from hand carts. 

The campaign was leaving money on the table. No longer. The emails for merchandise bring you to sites affiliated with the Trump campaign. Not all are. There are sites with names like trumphat2020 and tendollartrumphats that make no reference to the campaign. They are competition.

Depending on ones point of view, the gear can be either inspiring or ridiculous.

There are wearable pro-Trump items, plus commemorative and celebratory items, like the Trump-as-Rambo wall hanging. There are commemorative coins and currency, signed photographs, and specialty art. There are gadgets, like flashlights, knives, bottle openers.

The website has an alphabetical list of categories of merchandise, which gives a flavor: 
Air Force, Apparel, Army, Art, Athletic Shorts, Autograph, BadDogMetalworks, Bank Notes, Banners, Baseball Caps, Beanies, Beer Glasses, Bobbleheads, Books, Bottle Openers, Buckles, Button Downs. . . .   

That list just gets one through the B's. 

Lithograph: "The Masterpiece" of the coming next 4 years. $98