The members of President Donald Trump’s Cupboard sat behind crimson MAGA-style hats emblazoned with the incorrect terminology “Gulf of America” throughout a televised White Home assembly held on Wednesday.
Whereas the hats are usually not out there on Trump’s official on-line retailer as of the time of writing, he has ceaselessly used his presidency to advertise MAGA-branded merchandise. It is only one of many ways in which Trump has used his publicly funded workplace to complement himself.
The administration has tried to push the rebrand of the Gulf of Mexico because the “Gulf of America” for months and has efficiently satisfied digital map suppliers like Google and Apple to show it. However others have resisted, just like the Related Press, which continues to explain the physique of water by its traditionally correct and globally acknowledged title. In response, Trump has banned the AP from masking White Home occasions and has been concerned in authorized wrangling as he assaults freedom of the press.
As if the entire “Gulf of America” hat factor wasn’t absurd sufficient, billionaire Elon Musk additionally attended, sporting two totally different MAGA-style hats on his head. The eye-hungry transfer follows studies that he’ll quickly step again from his position in steering the unpopular Trump White Home.
Including to the Cupboard assembly’s cult-like ambiance, Trump opened the gathering by insisting they share a false actuality. Mendacity, he claimed that it was not his fault that the nation’s gross home product shrunk within the first quarter of 2025. As an alternative, he incorrectly blamed former President Joe Biden.
“That’s Biden. That’s not Trump,” Trump complained. “I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy, destroying our country.”
In actuality, the financial system is struggling due to Trump’s chaotic tariff strikes. His insurance policies have elevated the prices of products and brought about world financial uncertainty. The shrinking financial system has just about nothing to do with the previous president.
When Trump took workplace, the U.S. financial system was booming following insurance policies that Biden put in place to get better from the COVID-19-fueled downturn beneath Trump.
The unusual hats and the promotion of a false actuality with Trump’s Cupboard of billionaires present proof of a cult of self-deception. Trump and his workforce might attempt to promote a false model of actuality to the general public, the place the Gulf of Mexico is renamed and tariffs are figuring out—however public opinion polling exhibits it isn’t working.
Trump is unpopular and so are his concepts, and a crimson hat isn’t going to make that go away.
