Trump redesigns MAGA hat in latest fundraising push

Former president allegedly updates iconic hat because ‘Our movement isn’t slowing down. In fact, it's only speeding up’

Donald Trump has allegedly redesigned his iconic MAGA hat himself, and told his fans in an email that he will sign the $40 (£29) item.

In a fundraising email at the weekend, the former president said he had redesigned his iconic red MAGA hat by swapping the words “Make American Great Again” for the simpler acronym “MAGA” in red and gold lettering.

He wrote in the email that he redesigned “our BRAND NEW MAGA Hat and I want YOU to have it”.

“Our movement isn’t slowing down. In fact, it's only speeding up. That's why I wanted to design a NEW HAT for all of our best supporters”. he added in the email, as The New York Post reported.

The redesigned hat, which went on sale on Monday, is $10 more expensive than the original MAGA hat, and $5 more expensive than a hat with the words “Save America” on the front.

All three are available on his “Save America” store, which is hosted by WinRed – the Republican fundraising nonprofit that was forced to deny accusations that it broke federal campaign finance laws, after reporting an operating budget of zero.

WinRed, according to The Daily Beast, was accused on Monday of failing to report who it was paying to work for it, or who its service providers were, after raising a total of $2.24 billion (£1.6 billion) for GOP campaigns in 2020.

Mr Trump’s online store reopened on WinRed in April after it was shut down by its former host, Shopify, in the wake of the Capitol riot on 6 January.

Shopify said at the time that the former president had “violated a policy that prohibits the support of organisations or people “that threaten or condone violence to further a cause”, after Mr Trump called for his supporters to walk to Capitol in a show of “strength”. A riot was then carried-out.

According to The Post, fans of the former president were also offered a limited edition version of the redesigned MAGA hat with his signature on the rim – for donating an extra $25, $50, $100, or $250.

The gimmick follows an email last week in which Trump fans were asked to chose between four designs for an “offical Trump card” – with the former president misspelling the word “official”. He was also accused of using far-right iconography associated with Nazis by Twitter critics.