Nationalism is 2025’s hottest merch trend
Plus: The story of Trump’s new immigration policy as told by two apps
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at how Trump’s second term in office is inspiring merch in the U.S. and Canada, and the apps that tell the story about changes to immigration policy between the U.S. and Mexico.
Scroll to the end to see: a purposefully terrible custom brand font that’s so bad it’s good 🐆
Nationalism is 2025’s hottest merch trend
President Donald Trump’s return to office has inspired hats north of the border while Republicans have turned his expansionist foreign policy pronouncements into shirts for fundraising. The campaign might be over, but the merch has just begun.
After Ontario Premier Doug Ford wore a “Canada Is Not For Sale” hat earlier this month in Ottawa at a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other premiers (that’s the Canadian equivalent of a U.S. governor, btw), the hat’s makers, the Ottawa-based creative consultancy Jackpine Dynamic Branding, were overwhelmed with orders. Trump’s statements about tariffs and annexation have struck a nerve with our neighbors to the north.
“Nothing is more important than the country,” Ford said during a press conference wearing the hat. “President Trump wants to devastate Canada. He wants to devastate Canada through economic sanctions and tariffs. That’s unacceptable.”
The $45 hats spell out the slogan in Times New Roman, the same font as Trump’s original “Make America Great Again” hats, and there’s also a version in French, naturally. “Le Canada n’est pas à vendre.”
Jackpine Dynamic Branding founder Liam Mooney told Reuters he was inspired to create the hats as a response to Trump’s rhetoric towards Canada and as a statement about nationalism and unity. “It's an opportunity to bring people together from all of civil society, regardless of political persuasion,” he said. “Our sovereignty is threatened when our dignity is disrespected.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are fundraising off Trump’s second term priorities for the U.S. sphere of influence in the Americas. The National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC, is out with $35 tees showing a bald eagle with Trump hair relaxing on a beach chair with a beer and the words “Greetings from the Gulf of America” to celebrate Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
To sell the Trump National Committee joint fundraising committee’s own $35 “Gulf of America!” tee, a recent Trump campaign fundraising email asked recipients if they “live near the Gulf of Mexico?,” followed by, “Well, now you don’t!” They’re also selling “Make Greenland Great Again” tees. No word yet on official Panama Canal merch, but a third party is selling “Make Panama Canal American Again” shirts on Amazon.
The “Canada Is Not For Sale” hat is a statement of nationalism and sovereignty, and “Gulf of America” and “Make Greenland Great Again” tees are meant to communicate much the same thing, though on offense instead of defense. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump earlier this month by joking North America should be renamed “América Mexicana.” She hasn’t printed it yet on sweatshirts, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.
Most contemporary political merch tends toward sloganeering over policy proposals (a “No Tax on Tips” decal the Trump campaign sold during the 2024 race was a rare exception). Still, it’s not as if Republicans’ new foreign-policy-themed merch is focused on, say, bringing peace to the Middle East or remaining competitive with China. What is “Gulf of America,” really, but sloganeering?
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The story of Trump’s new immigration policy as told by two apps
Overnight, changes to U.S. immigration and border policy are already having a real-world impact—and it’s even showing up in app stores.
The day after the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, shut down its CBP One app, which allowed migrants to apply for asylum and book appointments to legally enter the U.S., Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an app of its own to provide information and services to Mexican nationals in the U.S.
Mexico’s new ConsulApp Contigo, which became available last week, is described in the App Store as a “comprehensive care tool” for Mexican immigrants in vulnerable situations, with access to consular offices locations and information on legal rights and procedures. The name suggests the app is a consulate you can take with you. The app icon depicts a button with lines suggesting an alert emanating from it. According to its description, the app does not collect data.
The launch of the app comes on the heels of new executive orders by Trump related to immigration and border policy that hardens the U.S.-Mexico border and cracks down on illegal immigration. Another order attempts to undo the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship protections, which grants U.S. citizenship to babies born in the U.S.
The CBP One app, launched by CBP during former President Joe Biden’s administration, allowed users to check border wait times, apply for a provisional entry to cross the border or for asylum, or schedule appointments at ports of entry. The app offered a civic design solution to solve immigration backups, providing a convenient way for people to access information and services on their phones.
A website for the app now says it is no longer available as of Jan. 20, 2025, the day Trump took office, and existing appointments have been cancelled, leaving many migrants stranded.
The most striking feature of the ConsulApp design is a red button at the bottom of the app that shows a phone icon labeled “Attention Button” with the instructions to hold for five seconds “if you need help.” The feature is designed for Mexican nationals facing detention. Press it, and a user’s emergency contacts and the nearest Mexican consulate will get an alert.
The app comes amid heightened concerns about what the Trump administration’s immigration policy changes mean for Mexicans in the U.S. The only Mexican Consulate with a 24/7 call center is in Tucson, Ariz., and it’s been inundated with calls, the head of the consulate Rafael Barceló Durazo tells AZPM, a PBS and NPR station in Southern Arizona.
“It’s very, very important for the people to understand that, regardless of their immigration status, they do have constitutional rights,” Barceló Durazo said.
As of this writing, the ConsulApp Contigo was No. 10 in Education on the Apple App Store. As the Trump administration works to implement its new border and immigration policies, expect it to remain a top-downloaded app.
Have you seen this?
Money orders just got redesigned. The new design will enhance already strong security features to further deter counterfeiting and other fraudulent activities. It will be released in February 2025. [U.S. Postal Service]
Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ in Maps app after government updates. “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” the company wrote on X. Google added that the name Gulf of Mexico will remain displayed for users in Mexico. [CNBC]
Cheetos just designed a terrible custom font on purpose. Rather than playing to its brand assets with a cartoonish font based on the Cheetos logo, Other Hand font is an irregular, scribbled font that plays to the brand experience: It imagines a typeface made by designers whose fingers are covered in orange Cheetos dust. [Fast Company]
Trump’s war for attention. More than any American politician, Trump knows how to wield attention as a political weapon. But what happens when people no longer want to give it to him? [Whig]
History of political design
"Still Free" graffiti by Marc Ecko on the side of a rented Boeing 747 in San Bernardino, Calif., painted to look like Air Force One (2006). The stunt was a viral ad for the apparel brand Ecko that was so convincing the Pentagon had to issue a denial, and it ended up winning an award at the Cannes Lions ad festival.
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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