(AFP) – Less than 72 hours after Donald Trump survived a would-be assassin’s bullets and raised his fist skyward, the moment has been immortalized — in the form of T-shirts hawked to Republicans at their national convention.
American political conventions, and campaign trail events in general, are prime opportunities for candidates and savvy manufacturers to rake in big bucks by selling merchandise to faithful followers.
This week’s convention is offering a cornucopia of souvenirs for sale, from Trump bibles and red or pink or camouflage MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats to rhinestone “Women4Trump” pins and “Never Surrender!” shirts featuring the mug shot of the ex-president, a convicted felon.
But one piece of merch in particular was raising eyebrows Tuesday. Sold next to a security access point for this week’s Republican National Convention, the white shirt is printed with the now-famous photograph showing Trump, bloodied but alive moments after he was nearly taken out in a horrific shooting, and defiantly pumping his fist.
The shirt — not part of the Trump campaign’s official merchandise, an organizer stressed — also features the words: “MAGA Movement Can’t Be Stopped.” Another version shows the same photograph of a bloodied but unbowed Trump and the word “FEARLESS” across the top.
California delegate Colleen Johns, mulling buying one of the shirts for her grandson, said the image conveyed Trump’s strength. “If you had just been shot you might do the same, I think, you know? ‘I’m strong, I’m standing, let’s go,'” Johns told AFP. “I thought that was inspirational.”
– ‘An iconic picture’ –
New Jersey delegate Francine Gargano, also shopping for trinkets at the convention, swatted away concerns that the shirt does little to tone down the toxic political rhetoric as many have called for after the shooting. “I don’t think it’s wrong, I think it’s right. That’s the whole reason why we’re here,” she said.
Brad Neuser, who created the “FEARLESS” shirt, said it has been well received. “It’s an iconic picture,” Neuser said as he hawked his shirt and other souvenirs. “When this happened, the attempted assassination, we worked on a new design, printed them out and decided to come down here and hopefully, you know, feed our family.” They ended up printing extra.
Many people browsed the convention’s rows of booths and tables offering everything from a $1,000 guitar signed by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood to one of the biggest merch hits this week: a $45 bound volume called “Collected Poems of Donald J. Trump.” The “poems” are actually Trump’s tweets, laid out in creative, poetic styling. A few hundred copies have already been sold at the convention, and “we’ll sell out today,” said the book’s creator Gregory Woodman.
On a darker note, the US Concealed Carry Association was holding an AR-15 rifle giveaway contest at the convention. Asked whether it was unseemly to be offering up a weapon similar to the one used to try to murder the very man being coronated this week as the party’s presidential nominee, the USCCA’s Beth Alcazar didn’t flinch. “I don’t think it’s odd or indecent,” she said. “It has nothing to do with the events of this weekend.” – Gilles CLARENNE
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