According to Politico, Donald Trump’s reelection campaign will now be selling a Trump-branded permanent marker to its web store, capitalizing on the Sharpie-gate drama and expanding the campaign’s culture war offerings that already include stick-it-to-the-liberals plastic straws.
The marker, announced on Twitter this morning by campaign manager Brad Parscale, is the latest effort by the campaign to amplify and then commodify what could have been a relatively minor controversy.
“Buy the official Trump marker, which is different than every other marker on the market, because this one has the special ability to drive @CNN and the rest of the fake news crazy!” Parscale tweeted.
Buy the official Trump marker, which is different than every other marker on the market, because this one has the special ability to drive @CNN [1] and the rest of the fake news crazy! #KeepMarkersGreat [2]https://t.co/eakgICM0LR [3]
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) September 6, 2019 [4]
It’s an apparent reference to the consternation that’s spread this week over Trump’s use of a Sharpie-altered weather map on Wednesday to back up his dubious claim that Alabama had been at dire risk of being hammered by Hurricane Dorian.
Beginning on Sunday, Trump has repeatedly insisted that the hurricane would threaten the state, despite being almost immediately contradicted by the National Weather Service and other meteorologists.
This is a familiar strategy from Parscale. In July, he griped on Twitter about a paper straw — marketed as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic — getting soggy and useless in his sweet tea. And because environmentally friendly is often associated with liberal in the context of the culture wars, a $15 pack of Trump-branded plastic straws soon arrived on the campaign store.
Twitter had some thoughts:
The definition of a party of grifters. Make money off your own stupidity. https://t.co/oajCDbYamk [5]
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) September 6, 2019 [6]
Ha ha the president of the United States doctored a weather map to try and avoid admitting he made a mistake!
What a knee-slapper!! https://t.co/CSNu1vVgV7 [7]
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) September 6, 2019 [8]
What better way to remember that the president of the United States is a sociopathic piece of shit who lies to the American people about life and death matters? Hey Brad, your wife getting a cut of these funds too? https://t.co/BVctTbHlnU [9]
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 6, 2019 [10]
“Buy a marker in commemoration of what the President used to unlawfully distort a hurricane forecast” is one hell of a sales pitch.
I’m sure this will sell out and MAGA squad will write their best lies with it.#LyinMarkers [11] https://t.co/ZtLuQt8wYe [12]
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) September 6, 2019 [13]
A week ago someone joked that the Trump campaign was gonna start selling sharpies because of this inane hurricane map dustup.
Well, apparently I took it as a joke. And now: https://t.co/KP4xBjAmRx [14]
— Garrett Smith (@gacsmith) September 6, 2019 [15]
It was inevitable the grifters would cash in on this. https://t.co/adwvtxV9H2 [16]
— Michael Freeman (@michaelpfreeman) September 6, 2019 [17]