Trump Merch Sellers Reveal Brutal Reality as Stores Shut Down

Mario Tama / Mario Tama/Getty Images The MAGA merchandise gold rush is showing signs it’s winding down.

Gift shops selling Trump-adjacent inventory, from hats to novelty wine glasses, have been dotted around the country for most of the last decade, but now their days may be numbered.

NPR reports that at least four have closed around the country this year alone, while online Trump department store MAGA Mall’s sales have dropped by 30 percent.

The 80-year-old is hurtling towards the final quarter of his presidential lifespan and is expected to take hit after brutal hit from a blue wave in the midterms on Nov.

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“People were not wearing their colors, so to speak, like they did before the (2024) election,” former Trump superstore owner Bill Hays told the broadcaster.

He opened the store in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2024, claiming he earned $200,000 a month in those early days, with lines of 80 people snaking out the door.

“After the inauguration, I think a lot of people felt that their job was done,” he said.

“They didn’t have to promote MAGA or Trump.” Ahead of the midterms, some vendors are getting twitchy.

“I don’t want to be sitting holding thousands and thousands of dollars of Trump merchandise and absolutely no possibility of selling it,” Rick Kligman, the owner of two stores in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, told NPR.

The president is enduring historically low approval ratings, driven by several unpopular policies, sky-high gas and grocery prices, and the war with Iran.

Hays said his policies, particularly the massive DOGE cuts to government personnel led by Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, stand out among those bad decisions.

President of the online retailer MAGA Mall, Ron Solomon, said MAGA stores pivoting to more general patriotic inventory was part of the natural flow of business, adding that about 20 dedicated MAGA stores remained nationwide.

“He’s no longer a viable business model for entrepreneurs because he has peaked,” Trump superfan Wes Alker told NPR at a Trump store closing-down sale in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.