A Hat that Trumps Personal Identity
Bleur Endom
Sept 2021
Still image from video by Kaya Taitano. CNS photo, social media via Reuters. 18 Jan 2019.
Donald Trump is perhaps the most divisive figure in today’s America, carrying himself as a right-wing populist who alone can take on the rising liberal forces that supposedly threaten the American legacy — all while wearing a bright red MAGA hat. The gaudy color ensnares the wandering eye, and you don’t even have to read the lettering to know what it says: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” Originally just his personal golfing hat, following his 2012 trademark of the phrase, the billionaire became synonymous with the red cap. And through the 2016 run and thenceforth, the hat became the symbol for a movement, for masses of people disillusioned by the dogma of political correctness and liberal civility. Popularized during his 2016 run, the iconic white serif stitching on vivid red canvas became a staple of his many rally appearances, drawing massive crowds of his unwavering supporter base, virtually all of them sporting Trump’s cherry-red cap.
As clips from these rallies circulated through mass media and cemented themselves into popular culture, the hat quickly became a symbol of this new wave of outspoken, unapologetic right-wing populism. We’ve all seen the viral 2019 video of the Catholic high school boys smugly facing off with the Native American protestors; we watched the vermilion cap flash across our screens, its emboldened words sneering in the face of indigenous demonstrations. The media’s reaction to this event absolutely held massive socio-political implications, and the public view of the MAGA hat as a monolithic marker of privilege and arrogance had never been more exemplified.
It embodies our political tendencies of groupthink, an unmistakable pop of color that consumes the wearer’s being; the hat, as Robin Givhan writes for the Washington Post, “is not a statement of policy” but rather “an inflammatory declaration of identity.” This truth remains despite the personal intent or beliefs of the Trump supporter; the hat is too far iconized in our social landscape to represent anything other than the very connotations it holds. To understand this dialectic between the meaning of the hat to its wearers and the red nimbus of divisiveness and historical white-washing of which the hat has garnered, we must further examine the original connotations of the cap itself.
The vibrant, garish red hue of the hat deters from traditional political insignias, instead elevating the classically American design of a common ball cap to its new status of defiant, patriotic 20th century romanticization. Trump’s persona as a reality television star and his extravagant lifestyle add even more flash, a new level of branding for the cap which reinforces the potency of the color and thus its effectiveness as a political artifact. The extreme notoriety which this hat has amassed makes the color stand out even more than it objectively does — and red hats everywhere (even those completely unrelated to Trump) receive flashing glimpses and double-takes in passing. Through this political usurping of the color red, the unity of his base and the GOP as a whole is firmly expressed in and encompassed by the MAGA hat.
This obtrusive color reinforces his campaign’s image of being unabridged, decidedly not politically-correct, and unafraid to resist established political decorum, while the baseball cap’s form reflects the campaign’s traditional conservative sentiments of returning to better, more illustrious times. Depending on the seller of the cap, the font and letter-spacing varies, and often there are special MAGA hats with additional insignias for patriotism (such as an American flag) or Trumpisms (such as the number 45). The spacing between the letters on the official campaign version is actually uneven, and the “G” in “AGAIN” has a spur, whereas the “G” in “GREAT” does not. These subtle inconsistencies give further insight into Trump’s branded departure from the polite, reserved Republican, while, antithetically, the message on the hat hearkens back to the romanticized Reagan era and American exceptionalism.
These traits in the cap highlight the Trump supporters’ longing for an effective, populist leader, while also maintaining their patriotism and right-wing glamorization of 20th century America. To the privileged, this period reminds of “single-income families, picket fences and unlocked doors,” while those to whom our institutions have not been so kind recall “the heartbreak of redlining, walkers and beards, and the 'problem that has no name’” (Givhan). From its beginnings as a more legitimate, complex sentiment of conservatism, the MAGA hat has been, through the power of mass media, redefined with new societal overtones, its “rosy nostalgia [turning] specious and rank” (Givhan).
Nicholas Sandmann, as he faced the indigenous protestor, was first and foremost seen in context with his MAGA cap, and millions of viewers first followed down from his hat’s lettering, slowly tracing down the bill to witness his snickering face. The cap consumes the personal identity of its wearer, which is exactly why the media so easily and to such an extreme extent circulated images and videos of the minor’s face.
Trump supporters, however, know that their hat is polarizing, and, in fact, they relish it. Searching “MAGA hat” on YouTube yields thousands of compilation videos of “triggered liberals” and “MAGA hat freak-outs,” and there are entire Reddit circles for triggering “snowflakes.” This reflects the broader trends in the MAGA cap wearers’ enjoyment in expressing their views and loud support for the President, as their privileged status in society allows them to safely and so outwardly share their opinions. By having such societal privileges, the adamant Trump supporter is empowered to share this identity, and, compounded with the social connotations of the cap itself, they experience exhilaration from being unabashed in this profound ability to be so deeply polarizing.
Despite being emboldened by wearing their MAGA hat, conservatives (especially white Christians) endorse the notion of them being oppressed by political correctness and, in a more recently-developed buzzword, cancel culture. Thus, the cap reflects this dichotomy inside of the Trump supporter — a dichotomy between their bold, unwavering outward support of the President and their narrative of the societal dismissal of the straight white man. Givhan writes that the hat encompasses the extreme polarization of group identities, and those of minority status can only view the MAGA hat as a commodified embodiment of “garrulous narcissism, of white male privilege, [and] of violence and hate.” The Trump supporter knows how the hat is viewed by society, as evident by the thousands of incredibly popular MAGA hat reaction clips, and they love being able to wear a cultural artifact that places them so deeply in a group identity.
Trump’s MAGA hat is an extremely potent reminder of our political landscape, a symbol of the deep divides in this country and a reminder of the evolution of white supremacy. Now unmistakably a symbol of privileged, American-revisionist sympathies, the MAGA cap serves as a means for Trump supporters to escape into this identity, as the blaring red of the hat stands atop their heads like a red-alert alarm. The attitudes in the original meaning of the cap have deteriorated in the eyes of society, but the hat’s legacy in the American political collective will remain for decades to come.
Works Cited
Givhan, Robin. “The MAGA Hat Is Not a Statement of Policy. It's an Inflammatory Declaration of Identity.” The Washington Post. 24 Jan 2019.
Bleur Endom is from Mobile, Alabama and studies in the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.