President Donald Trump has played the role of carnival barker in promoting America’s 250th anniversary events, a portion of which are scheduled to coincide with his birthday. And amid the hullaballoo, the president and his family business are looking to cash in.
In recent months, Democrats have sounded the alarm on the potential for grift and outright bribery in the anniversary, an event that has united corporate sponsors around what is gearing up to be a massive right-wing propaganda effort chockfull of Christian nationalism. Just last week, Democrats demanded answers about “Freedom 250,” another federally funded celebration the Trump administration announced in December that has also drawn corporate sponsors.
And now the Trump Organization is looking to claim trademarks linked to the celebration, per publicly available files flagged this weekend by political news outlet NOTUS.
According to NOTUS:
The Trump Organization filed several previously unreported trademark applications last week in connection with America’s 250th anniversary celebration, all featuring the president’s name as a centerpiece of the highly-anticipated festivities. The trademarks were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by DTTM Operations LLC, which manages several other trademarks used by Trump and his businesses, over the last several days. In one filing submitted on Friday, a “Trump 250” image was trademarked to be used on a variety of merchandise — including bumper stickers, tote bags, drinkware, clothing items and golf balls. A wordmark application was also submitted for the name “Trump 250” on Friday.
The report continued:
The same merchandise items were also listed as potential uses for a number of variations of an image that features Trump’s name along with “a design of five aircrafts followed by converging contrails.” A trademark application for that image was also submitted Friday. Neither the Trump Organization’s trademark lawyer nor the White House responded to requests for comment on Sunday.
The trademark filings NOTUS discovered can be inspected here and here.
The trademarks perfectly epitomize two of the central characteristics of Trump’s second term: shameless acts of self-aggrandizement — even as his popularity continues to slide — and a desire to plaster his name on seemingly everything he can imagine.
