It wasn’t on the official White House tour. But when Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited last week for peace talks, President Donald Trump ushered them into a side room lined with hats, shirts, and souvenirs—emblazoned not with the seal of the United States, but with “Trump 2028” and “4 More Years.”
As cameras rolled, Trump grinned and held up one of his name-brand caps: “Everyone wants me to run again,” he joked. Aliyev, caught between diplomatic politeness and visible discomfort, replied, “including us.”
The exchange might have been an odd footnote — except that it came after the Supreme Court recently granted presidents absolute immunity for actions taken while in office. To critics, it was proof that Trump sees that new shield as a license to flout the Constitution’s two-term limit, and to market the idea shamelessly from inside the seat of power.
Republicans have stayed silent. Progressives have not. “Disgusting,” wrote Trump critic Brian Tyler Cohen, who shared a reel of the moment on Facebook.
Broadcaster Mehdi Hasan noted, “We all laugh and roll our eyes and yet I am trying to think what the reaction — especially from right wing media — would have been in 2013 if Obama had showed a foreign dictator around the White House while chuckling and revealing 2016 third term merch to him hidden in a closet.”
Meanwhile, Republicans tried to divert attention away from the controversy, bringing up the latest string of international agreements Trump has been involved with to reinforce his image as a negotiator. They claim Trump has been calling world leaders directly and pushing for resolutions to long-running disputes, as Trump has openly expressed his desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
The deal Trump brokered between Aliyev and Pashinyan in the latest international effort to resolve the two South Caucasus nations’ long-running Nagorno-Karabakh dispute was widely viewed as a major setback for the Kremlin, a clear rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since launching his full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022, Putin has seen Moscow’s influence over former Soviet territories steadily fade. Adding to Putin’s frustration, the agreement includes a role for U.S. troops in regional peacekeeping.
However, despite whatever victory Republicans could claim on the diplomatic front, critics felt Trump’s personal White House gift shop, complete with Trump 2028 merchandise, underscored his grifting and pursuit of another term despite legal barriers.
The product display sparked backlash from progressives, who accused Trump of once again flouting the Constitution and ignoring the dignity of the presidency.
Commentator Kyle Kulinski took aim at Trump’s remodeling of the White House. “Trump is gold plating everything in the White House while cutting cancer research and Meals on Wheels,” Kulinski wrote on X, posting a photo of Trump walking through an Oval Office doorway lined with gold fixtures.
Elsewhere across social media, everyday Americans took serious issue with the president’s grifting.
“As an American citizen, this makes me feel hopeless. Our system no longer matters anymore as it’s just a pay-to-play and succeed. Every day I am reminded that the system of checks and balances doesn’t matter as he can just sh– all over them with no consequences,” one person commented on the version of the video posted to Threads.
“What a vulgar, idiotic display of narcissism. He cheapens the White House every day he’s in it,” one critic wrote.
Other critics blasted Trump for paving over the century-old Rose Garden and turning it into a patio — a move that has drawn widespread condemnation.
Democratic strategist Chris D. Jackson echoed the criticism. “Aside from ruining the Rose Garden, Trump turned the Oval Office into a tacky gold palace—like something out of Saddam Hussein’s playbook,” he said. “While they slash Medicaid, veterans benefits, and education, he’s blinging out a place he’s supposed to leave in 3 years. Pathetic priorities. Total disgrace.”
Author Stephen King was also blunt: “Trump is turning American democracy into an oligarchy.”
The current political climate was rich with irony. In the Gilded Age, Mark Twain mocked the “thin layer of gold” masking America’s social cracks—opulence covering poverty, corruption, and inequality. Trump’s gold-trimmed White House décor, the cheap synthetic shine of Chinese-made “Trump 2028” goods, and his flirtations with a third term echo that era’s “champagne and soot” dynamic: a dazzling personal brand laid over deep institutional corrosion.
Trump, for his part, has alternated between denying and dangling the prospect of running for another term. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday, he said he would “probably not” run for a third term. “I’d like to run,” he added, citing “the best poll numbers I’ve ever had.”
But in March, he told NBC there “are methods” to get around the 22nd Amendment, which prohibits any person from being elected president more than twice. Politico reported that his allies have floated repealing the amendment or positioning him as vice president to then ascend to the presidency.
The White House communications shop is already defending the merchandise.
“Americans overwhelmingly approve and support President Trump and his America First policies,” communications director Steven Cheung said in March. “As the president said, it’s far too early to think about it, and he is focused on undoing all the hurt Biden has caused and Making America Great Again.”
Still, the viral clip — showing Trump promoting MAGA caps to foreign leaders — landed differently depending on the politics. Supporters saw it as trademark Trump confidence and flair, selling the idea of made in America. But critics saw it as more evidence that Trump sees himself as above the law, willing to sidestep constitutional limits, with a party willing to help him cling to power.
Great Job A.L. Lee & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
