We came across multiple posts on the social media platform X on the following topic (1, 2, 3, 4):
The posts claim that MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats of the kind popularised by US President Donald Trump are made in China.
The posts contain images of red baseball caps with the ‘Make America Great Again’ embroidery that had labels attached that indicate they were made in China.
Some of the images are highly similar and appear to have the same origin. However, we also encountered posts where the caps were different, such as some with labels that showed they were made with a different blend of materials.
In addition, we also came across a post that claimed that their photo of the made in China cap on Facebook had been removed with the reason given that it was an ‘untrue fact’. The user then posts a picture of a red cap made in Bangladesh alongside the one made in China.
Made in the USA?
To determine the origin of the hats, we located the products online. We found some of what appear to be official MAGA hats for sale on TrumpStore.com, which is described as the official retail website of the Trump Organisation.
TrumpStore.com offers two red caps with the ‘Make America Great Again’ embroidery, the classic MAGA hat, which is currently listed as out of stock, and the 45 – 47 MAGA hat.
The classic MAGA hat was described as ‘made in the USA’, while the 45 – 47 MAGA hat is described as ‘made in America’. Neither hat has any reference to China in its description.
We also found links to an official store for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform that denied access when we attempted to visit.
In addition to these sites, we found similar hats on Trump-themed online stores such as officialtrump2020store.com and trumpstoreamerica.com. While the names of these stores may suggest affiliation with Trump or his campaign, the sites are in fact not affiliated.
Despite this, the unaffiliated stores claim to offer official merch. Officialtrump2020store.com, for instance, offers a ‘USA 45 Hat Donald Trump 2020 Baseball Cap’ described as ‘embroidered in the USA’ and a ‘The Official Red Make America Great Again Hat with 45 on side Trump Wears’ described as ‘made in the USA’. Trumpstoreamerica.com, meanwhile, lists a ‘MAGA Hat – Made In USA’ cap.
Amazon also has multiple listings of MAGA hats that have origins described as ‘imported’ or ‘made in the USA or imported’.
Capping it Off
When we conducted a web keyword search on the hats made in China, we found that this story had been cropping up as early as 2015. Snopes published a factcheck that found claims that the Trump campaign was producing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats in China were false.
Snopes found that the official hats were all described as ‘made in the USA’, and the one made in China was likely to be an unofficial item such as those sold on Amazon.
The claims emerged again in 2019 and 2020 when Trump ran for election a second time, and other outlets such as Factcheck.org and AP News again found the claims to be false or misleading. The image in the factcheck.org claim is identical to the one used in some of the posts above.
The most recent appearance of these images and posts appears to be related to recent news of Trump imposing steep tariffs of China, with social media users critical of Trump posting images of the hats to highlight the irony that the hats would now increase in price. Several of the posts were written as replies in threads discussing the impact of the tariffs.
The US has regulations governing both ‘Made in USA’ labelling and country of origin marking for imports into the country. While all apparel is governed by these regulations, the proliferation of unofficial and online stores selling such merchandise suggests that there are many counterfeit hats being imported from abroad, with the possibility of some being falsely labelled.
As for the hats sold in the official stores, while they are listed as ‘made in the USA’ or ‘made in America’, it is not possible to independently verify the supply chain and the checks made on them. It is also not certain whether the stores are credible sources of information about the country of origin of the items.
As such, while the claims about the hats being made in China are misleading due to the availability of hats on the official Trump organisation website described as made in the US, the claims are unproven as the country of origin cannot be independently verified.
