Presidential campaign Christmas merch is here
Plus: there’s an Es Devlin retrospective at Our Nation’s Design Museum
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
Presidential campaign Christmas merch is here
A PAC is backing Dean Phillips against Biden in the New Hampshire primary
There’s an Es Devlin retrospective at Our Nation’s Design Museum
Scroll to the end to see: what Christmas looks like at the White House this year. 🎄
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Presidential campaign Christmas merch is here
What does Santa give boys or girls who accumulate 91 felony counts in four criminal cases but absolutely looove coal? Asking for a former president whose campaign is now selling $25 stockings showing his mugshot made from scuba foam.
Tis the season for presidential campaigns to offer holiday-themed items in exchange for donations, aka the true meaning of Christmas, and the leading Democratic and Republican candidates are offering a number of gift options for your liberal aunt or MAGA cousin.
Former President Donald Trump’s booking photo from the Fulton County sheriff's office for racketeering and other charges related to allegations he attempted to overturn the 2020 election also shows up on $35 wrapping paper picturing him in a Santa hat (festive!). Another wrapping paper pattern shows Trump pumping his fist with “Make America Great Again” written in a script font on a green background.
Trump’s campaign is selling $50 red and green “Make America Great Again” hats with multi-colored Christmas lights strung across the slogan and “Merry Christmas” written across the back, and a $67 America First brass ornament. On a related note, do you think Trump’s ever been visited by the ghost of a former business associate on Christmas Eve and shown visions of Christmases past, present, and future at any point in his life, and if so, what did he see?
The only other Republican presidential candidate with specific merch for Christmas as of press time is former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley whose campaign is selling a $12 ornament with her logo in red and green and a $14 roll of Nikki Haley campaign logo wrapping paper.
🌟 For less than the cost of a Trump America First brass ornament, you can support this newsletter for a full year and get access through the entire 2024 campaign. Upgrade your subscription today:
(Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ shop is populated by merch heavy on topics I’d think many mixed-party families would rather avoid over holiday dinners, like immigration (“DeSantis Airways” tees, hats, and bumper stickers) and a “This is a Mask-Free House” yard sign. Yikes! An $18 golf ball box set is advertised with the slogan “Ron DeSantis Has a Pair.” Lol cool.)
Dark Brandon with his eyes so bright is rendered in ugly sweater style for a $32 tee and $60 hoodie from President Joe Biden’s campaign, and there’s also a $6 two-pack of “Dark Santa” stickers picturing the candidate’s meme persona in a Santa hat. The Biden-Harris 2024 logo cross stitch mug is $22 and shows aviators and snowflakes.
Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal. ❤️💚
A PAC is backing Dean Phillips against Biden in the New Hampshire primary
President Joe Biden didn’t put his name on the ballot in New Hampshire, which is holding its first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 23, 2024, ahead of the Democratic National Committee’s preferred South Carolina. A political action committee backing Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) is hoping to take advantage of the calendar dispute.
The Pass the Torch PAC has spent $192,000 on ad buys in New Hampshire supporting Phillips, supplementing $410,000 in ad time reserved by the Phillips campaign, according to NBC News. Meanwhile, the Biden campaign has not spent on ad time in the state.
The pro-Phillips group began airing an ad titled “Trump Is Winning” Monday that highlights the recent New York Times/Siena College poll showing Trump leading Biden in five of six surveyed swing states. The spot opens with a clip of JFK speaking at his inauguration about the torch being passed to a new generation, and the narrator says, “2024 is different, Trump is winning, it’s time to pass the torch.”
Democrats in New Hampshire are split over how to handle Biden and the party’s attempt to make South Carolina its new first-in-the-nation primary state. There’s a Write-In Joe Biden campaign to keep the president from losing a contest he’s not even technically competing in, but some worry a mediocre showing for POTUS could backfire, per NBC News, and others, including former New Hampshire House Speaker Stephen Shurtleff, don’t want to write in Biden because of his support for bumping New Hampshire from its FITN spot.
There’s an Es Devlin retrospective at Our Nation’s Design Museum
The work of stage designer Es Devlin — who’s designed work for Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour and Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball among other projects — is now being exhibited at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in New York City.
An Atlas of Es Devlin is the first monographic museum exhibition to the British artist, according to the museum, and it features more than 300 sketches, paintings, and illuminated paper cuts by the designer, plus projection-mapped rotating miniature sculptures. The work spans Devlin’s 30-year career, from teenage paintings and early charcoal sketches to sketches and models of her stage concepts (omg, the sketch of the eyes from Adele Live 2016 😍😍💓). “Iris” (above) lists Devlin’s collaborators in multiple layers of circles, creating a tunnel, like one of her stage designs.
“My craft is to imagine worlds that don’t yet exist, to invite audiences to practice ‘interbeing’ within psychological architectures they have not previously inhabited, to remind viewers that they are not separate but connected to one another and to the biosphere,” Devlin told Hypebeast.
“For this exhibition, I have gathered the drawings, fragile paper sculptures and small-scale revolving cardboard models that I and my studio team have been making over the past three decades, a miniature parallel practice at the root of the large-scale public performance and installation works,” she said.
An Atlas of Es Devlin is open until Aug. 11, 2024.
Have you seen this?
A 94-year-old icon of design just made Floyd’s newest chair. Gere Kavanaugh designed the Easy Chair in the 1970s. Now Floyd is bringing it to life for the first time. [Fast Company, by me]
AFP Action, the anti-Trump conservative political network financed largely by billionaire Charles Koch, has endorsed former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The announcement was made in a memo to grassroots activists via the network’s advocacy arm on Tuesday and is being backed by a multimillion-dollar ad campaign in states that hold early primary contests and several that vote on Super Tuesday beginning this week. [NBC News]
First lady Jill Biden unveils this year's White House Christmas decorations. The theme, "Magic, Wonder, and Joy," is inspired by children's experiences of the season: "completely present in the beauty and bounty around them, their senses alight, with hearts open to the magic, wonder, and joy of the holidays," Biden said. [NPR]
The Blessed Madonna responds to Rishi Sunak using ‘We’ve Lost Dancing’ on an Instagram post. “For the record, I’d rather hear my own death rattle echoing in my ears, as I plunge happily into the void than hear the sound of my voice in an ad for the Tories.” [NME]
ICYMI:
History of political design
Ronald Reagan campaign poster (1976). This poster is from the group Citizens for Reagan, a political organization that worked to draft Ronald Reagan to challenge President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination in 1976, chaired by Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.).
Thanks for reading! ⭐📨
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