Fore! No Trump

When gilt and glitter came without a political message, Donald J Trump raked in cash to sponsors who paid big bucks to associate their products with his name. Having not given up his huge stake in the Trump golf course, hotel and real estate business, the President has also created a path (while he is in office) for his foreign supporters and those wishing to curry favor with him to line his pockets, albeit walking on the edge, if not actually crossing, the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause.

Those 49 words, in Article 1 of the Constitution, are literally the only proscription against a president of the United States in terms of accepting money: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” While Mr. Trump’s holdings, particularly his Washington, D.C. hotel property on Pennsylvania Avenue, have been the subject of litigation under the above provision, this is one Trump real estate venture that is making money hand-over-fist, from block bookings from foreign prelates and governmental visitors to using that venue for presentations and gatherings in the hotel’s opulent facilities.

But on the whole, Trump’s name is now so politically charged that outside of those special venues, it no longer carries the cachet it once did… and to many, it is actually a major turn off. The April 23^rd Los Angeles Times explains: “In 2015, Trump listed 19 companies that were paying him to produce or distribute Trump-branded consumer goods.

“In recent weeks, only two said they are still selling Trump-branded goods. One is a Panamanian company selling Trump bed linens and home goods. The other is a Turkish company selling Trump furniture.

“Of the rest, some Trump partners quit in reaction to campaign-trail rhetoric on immigrants and Muslims. Others said their licensing agreements had expired. Others said nothing beyond confirming that they’d stopped working with Trump. Their last Trump goods are now being sold off, often at a discount. One cologne is marked down by an online retailer to $9.99 an ounce, from $42… ‘Success by Trump,’ the website says. And below that: ‘Clearance.’

“The decline of the Trump merchandise empire is another sign of how politics has changed the president’s business. On one hand, it has enabled his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and his Washington, D.C., hotel to monetize his political alliances, raking in money from evangelical Christian groups and GOP campaigns. But on the other, it has driven away customers and partners who had been drawn to the old Trump — a hustling icon of ostentatious wealth, who sold golf memberships to the truly rich and $42 cologne to those who merely wanted to be.

“‘Once the political campaign started, the wall went up,’ said Marshal Cohen, who measures retail business trends for the NPD Group. ‘The wall that he [built] was more around his merchandise than it was around Mexico.’

“The Trump Organization did not respond to questions about its licensed-merchandise business. Trump has said he has given up day-to-day management of his company while he’s in the White House. But he still owns it… The Trump Organization sells its own name-branded merchandise. Last year, it opened an e-commerce site, TrumpStore.com, with an inventory of Trump T-shirts, teddy bears and key chains… But the licensed merchandise business was something different. It enabled Trump to make money off other people’s work, other people’s products, other people’s marketing…

“In 2009, Trump reported that his licensing partners had sold $215 million worth of Trump-licensed goods worldwide. That ranked him 80th on License Global magazine’s list of the top 125 merchandisers. In some years, Phillips-Van Heusen alone paid him more than $1 million.

“For Trump, the benefit wasn’t just the money. The items brought his name into closets and kitchens nationwide.

“‘It’s ties, shirts, cuff links, everything sold at Macy’s. And they’re doing great,’ Trump told David Letterman in 2012 during an interview in which he also complained that China was overtaking the United States as an economic power. ‘No. 1 selling tie anywhere in the world.’… ‘The ties are made in China,’ Letterman said.

“By 2015, some of his more far-out ideas — steaks, urine tests and vitamins — were already kaput. But according to his financial disclosures, the 19 remaining licensees were still paying him a combined $2.4 million-plus per year, just to put the Trump name on their goods.

“Then Trump ran for president… Within a few weeks, the number was down to 14.

“‘We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico,’ said a corporate statement that Macy’s issued after Trump called Mexican immigrants criminals and ‘rapists’ at his first campaign event. ‘We have decided to discontinue our business relationship with Mr. Trump.’

“Losing Macy’s meant losing all the Trump merchandise that Macy’s had sold. Phillips-Van Heusen, his first big deal. Peerless, which made Trump suits. Parlux, which made his colognes. Another company made Trump belts. All gone.

“Serta, which made Trump Home mattresses, had been one of his most lucrative partners. Trump lost that partnership too… ‘They’ll all be back,’ Trump told Forbes magazine… A few months later, Trump called for a ‘total and complete shutdown’ of Muslims entering the United States. He lost another partner, a Dubai company that had a license to sell Trump furniture in the Middle East, Africa and India…

“Since Trump began his presidential campaign, the Trump Organization’s website has not added any listings of new manufacturers to replace those it has lost. In Trump’s 2017 financial disclosure, he reported that his royalties from licensed merchandise had fallen from more than $2.4 million to just over $370,000. The forms do not give exact numbers, only a range of values that the figures fall between.” Now Trump is down to just two such branding deals.  Guess the evangelical consumer base is not exactly sufficient to make up the difference. Is this something of an international poll on what people really thing of Trump? Hmmmm.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I suspect that the Trump brand really cannot expect a rebound after he leaves office either!