Why the new Trump-Vance logo represents a whole new era for the Trump brand
Why the new Trump-Vance logo represents a whole new era for the Trump brand
Plus: How the Biden campaign handled the assassination attempt and where it goes from here
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
Why the new Trump-Vance logo represents a whole new era for the Trump brand
The signifiers that make up the Trump 3.0 brand
How the Biden campaign handled the assassination attempt and where it goes from here
Scroll to the end to see: the oldest ever photo of a FLOTUS 🖼️
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Why the new Trump-Vance logo represents a whole new era for the Trump brand
The Trump campaign is saving on design costs. After former President Donald Trump announced freshman Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, his campaign updated its website and a campaign plane with the new Trump-Vance logo. Preprinted signs with the new logo hadn’t been prepared for attendees at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Monday, so attendees wrote “Vance” on signs themselves. Not to miss a fundraising opportunity, an email went out Tuesday offering a chance to buy the first-ever Trump-Vance tees.
The logo truly hasn’t changed much. In fact, it’s basically the same as the Trump-Pence campaign logo in the last presidential cycle. The 2024 campaign simply swapped out two letters from “Pence” to form “Vance,” and one number from “2020” so the year reads “2024.”
That Trump’s campaign would opt for a light-touch brand “refresh” rather than a full-on rebrand is to be expected. Presidential campaigns tend to stick with the same design elements in their visual identities over multiple campaign cycles, as Trump and President Joe Biden have done. Not to mention the fact the style of Trump’s logo—his last name in a bold sans-serif font encased in a rectangle with stars pinned to the top—has become a visual signifier for Trump-aligned candidates down ballot. There’s a lot of brand equity in the Trump logo.
The signifiers that make up the Trump 3.0 brand
Though the Trump-Vance logo looks familiar, Trump’s brand is in a wholly unique place. Trump’s newest brand signifiers are made with unprecedented visuals like his mugshot, a first for a major-party nominee and taken in connection with his efforts to overturn election results in Georgia. Photos from the assassination attempt against him near Butler, Pa., are now available on unofficial pro-Trump shirts. Together they signify strength and defiance to Trump’s supporters.
The Trump campaign’s latest digital fundraising ads use graphics of Trump with his fist raised with an American flag in the background. They feature slogans to donate like “Fear Not” and “Support Trump,” parlaying an assassination attempt into a marketing opportunity.
On paper, it’s a rather dark brand shaped by criminal convictions, shattered norms, and political violence. The Trump campaign even introduced a secondary black-and-white “Never Surrender” logo in June that coincided with developments in his criminal conviction.
And yet the Trump presented at this year’s Republican convention so far has been upbeat and positive. Trump appeared to applause at the convention’s first night Monday with a bandage over his ear, and the evening’s programming included a video compilation of Trump dancing. There’s a clear, sharp divide in how Americans view Trump. On one side he’s a folk hero, on the other he’s an historic threat to democracy.
The Trump-Vance logo could influence the look of Republican politics for years to come. Former running mates often take elements from presidential campaign logos to their future campaign branding, like Biden, whose logo was an intentional homage to former President Barack Obama’s O logo, and even Pence, who took a softer, more traditionally conservative take on Trump’s logo for his own presidential campaign.
Though Vance was once a vocal Trump critic, he’s now an heir to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political legacy and his aesthetic has aligned for the job. Vance, who once referred to himself as a never-Trumper, dressed like Trump in a blue suit and red tie when he went to support him at the Manhattan courthouse during his hush money trial earlier this year, and Vance’s last name is now rendered in the same font as Trump’s. Don’t be surprised if a future 2028 Vance campaign borrows the look of Trump’s logo to tie itself to Trump’s legacy. It might even help save on design costs.
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How the Biden campaign handled the assassination attempt and where it goes from here
Like a football player taking a knee when a member of the other team is injured, the Biden campaign postponed events and pulled ads after the assassination attempt against Trump. It didn’t last long, though.
In the hours after the shooting, the Biden campaign paused all “outbound communications” and moved to halt its TV ads while the Democratic National Committee paused all attack ads on TV and billboards, according to NBC News.
Biden canceled a planned speech for Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Vice President Kamala Harris postponed a trip to Florida.
The message from Biden was the need to turn down the temperature. “We must remember that, while we may disagree, we are NOT enemies,” he wrote in an email that mirrored his remarks during his Oval Office address. The email went out to his campaign’s fundraising list but didn’t include any explicit calls to donate in its body copy.
Trump’s selection of Vance as his running mate, though, has somewhat reset the news cycle and prompted a flurry of fundraising emails. Between Monday and Tuesday, the Biden campaign sent out no fewer than five emails that mention Vance.
“As the current (and future) Vice President, you can trust me when I say this position truly matters,” read an email signed by Harris that hit Vance for supporting a nationwide abortion ban and voting to block protections for IVF. “But our work is far from finished. Joe and I need you in our corner to ensure that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance do not turn back the clock on our progress.”
The Biden campaign will resume advertising this week, according to Reuters, though it’s unclear if they will return with pre-existing ads. Senior campaign aides have reportedly expressed concern that an extended pause in advertising would harm Biden.
Have you seen this?
Elon Musk has committed to donating $45 million a month to America PAC, a pro-Trump fundraising group. The tech billionaire previously said he had no plans to donate to presidential candidates. [Huffpost]
How photographers view the photos of Trump’s assassination attempt. Multiple photographers worried privately that the images from the rally could turn into a kind of "photoganda," with the Trump campaign using them to further their agenda despite the photographers' intent of capturing a news event. [Axios]
Trump assassination conspiracy posts have been viewed more than 215 million times on X, research shows. Almost immediately after the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, terms such as “staged,” “false flag,” and “deep state” began showing up in X’s trending topics window. [Fast Company]
House Democrats pull in big fundraising haul as they confront tricky campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $19.7 million in June and $44 million over the whole second quarter. [NBC News]
The earliest known photograph of a FLOTUS is headed to the Smithsonian. A daguerreotype of former first lady Dolley Madison believed to have been taken in 1846, nearly 30 years after her husband left office, has been acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. [Whig]
How the Trump campaign is building a new coalition for 2024. They’re focusing on reaching low-propensity Trump supporters with boots on the ground while reaching persuadable swing voters with targeted paid ads, and they’re not going after the persuadable voters you may think. [Yello]
History of political design
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“Our Country's Hope: Harrison & Reform” ribbon (1840). This satin ribbon shows a portrait of the first Whig president William Henry Harrison and an eagle holding a banner that reads "Union for the Sake of the Union.”
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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