Influencers and Trump supporters rushed to sell merchandise featuring Trump with blood on his face and a fist in the air just hours after Saturday’s deadly shooting and attempted murder.
On Sunday afternoon, right-wing activist Candace Owens and former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka had… T-shirts released with the image. “For God and Country,” said Owens’s. “The President of the United States,” said Gorka’s.
Neither Owens nor Gorka immediately responded to WIRED’s requests for comment asking whether they would donate their proceeds to Trump’s reelection campaign or the families of those shot at the rally.
David Portnoy, founder and owner of Barstool Sports, linked to a similar shirt in X made by Southern frat house brand Old Row, which was acquired by Barstool in 2016. “If you come to the king, you better not miss,” it said.
“Damn, are they making money off the shooting already?” one X user said in a reply to Portnoy. By Sunday afternoon, it appeared that Old Row had removed the shirt from the listing. The company did not immediately respond to WIRED’s requests to confirm that the shirt had been removed following the backlash.
Popular YouTubers and influencers also released their own related merchandise. The Hodge Twins, a pair of influencers with more than three million YouTube subscribers who host the podcast The Twins, released a t-shirt featuring the image and the words “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” on Saturday night.
“100% of the proceeds from this shirt go to the Trump campaign,” they said. In a post.
Dozens of TikTok users also promoted T-shirts featuring the infamous image on TikTok Shop over the weekend. Some held livestreams encouraging viewers to buy their shooting-related merchandise as if they were hosting a TV shopping show.
“Ohhh look at another Trump shirt sold today! Number 100,” wrote one user on a livestream where shirts were being sold.
Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengston, CEO of esports brand FaZe Clan, appeared to endorse Trump shortly after the shooting, writing “TRUMP 2024” in XBengston has more than five million subscribers on YouTube. FaZe Clan later announced red MAGA-style hats that read “MAKE FAZE GREAT AGAIN.” FaZe Clan did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED asking whether Bengston and his company’s posts were official endorsements.
The incident prompted several influencers to back Trump. “I pray for peace and prosperity for the world and I believe Trump gives us the best chance to achieve that,” Jake Paul, a YouTuber and professional boxer, wrote on Saturday. “When you try to kill God’s angels and saviors of the world, you only make them bigger.” In April, Paul invited Trump to attend his upcoming fight against Mike Tyson. At the time, a Trump official told WIRED that the former president was “seriously” considering attending. Tyson was later injured and The fight was cancelled.
Logan Paul, Jake’s older brother, stopped short of endorsing Trump on Saturday, but wrote: “Surviving an assassination attempt by millimeters and then stopping your security so you can raise your fist in defiance of death is the most badass thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Voting for the bulletproof criminal,” Tristan Tate, misogynist influencer and alleged human trafficker, wrote in X On Saturday, Andrew Tate, Tristan’s brother, who has also been charged with human trafficking in Romania, also posted messages of support for Trump.
Less than two hours after Trump had his mugshot taken at the Fulton County Jail in Georgetown last year, His campaign had already launched merchandising. with the image. While the campaign has sent out several text messages and emails to raise funds following the shooting, they have not released any related products.
