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I'm interested in how much Trump apparel is out there: how much has been produced or ordered or sold by his campaign, how much his supporters have bought or been given—and how this compares to that of other presidents.

By Trump apparel, I mean clothing or accessories that support Trump's political career, both his election and his presidency. The most notable example is probably "Make America Great Again" hats.

I'm most interested in apparel distributed by Trump or organizations led by him, but if there's a significant amount of apparel that's distributed by his supporters or other individuals or groups not directly tied to him, I'm happy to consider that too.

Information around this topic seems limited. Here, in June 2016, the Washington Post says Trump's campaign had spent more than $2 million on hats. Here, TMJ4, an NBC affiliate, says that "two months before Election Day," Trump's campaign had spent $3.2 million on hats.

Neither of these sources makes it easy to figure out where these figures are coming from. (WaPo says "campaign finance filings"; I can't figure out how they get that from the filings on the FEC's website.) Neither considers apparel beside hats. And neither considers how this kind of spending compares to that of other presidents.

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I think most "Trump apparael", e.g. MAGA hats, was not sold by Trump, nor by his Campaign. People can just make those hats, or pro-Trump clothes or what-not, and sell them or hand them out. And with that in mind, it would be effectively impossible for people to provide even good estimates of the amount.

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    I doubt that a person so interested in his marque (and as such well versed in intellectual property law) wouldn't try to protect a marque here and profit from it. Remember: Trump was only in it for the money.
    – Martin Schröder
    Commented Dec 2, 2018 at 11:24
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    @MartinSchröder: Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but pursuing legal action against people/companies supporting his campaign and spreading pro-Trump propaganda further would have been quite detrimental. I don't believe this was done (at least, I haven't heard of anything like that).
    – einpoklum
    Commented Dec 2, 2018 at 11:35
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Dubious sources, but look like few hundred thousand hats

ABC, which is of course usually critical of Trump, has run this story, lamenting tariffs against Chinese goods. According to them, price of of MAGA hat was $9-12 and few hundred thousand were sold, but it could double if they were forced to make them in US.

Business Insider, also usually against Trump, has later run this story, about California based factory (employing mostly Latinos) which produces MAGA hats and they indeed cost more ($25) .

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