Make America Great Again
"Make America Great Again" is an American political slogan most recently popularized by Donald Trump during his presidential campaigns in 2016, 2020, and 2024. "MAGA" is also used to refer to Trump's ideology, political base, or to an individual or group of individuals from within that base. The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in the arts, entertainment and politics, being used by both supporters and opponents of Trump's presidency and as the name of the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc.
Originally used by Ronald Reagan as a campaign slogan in his 1980 presidential campaign, it was adopted by Trump in 2015. It has been described as a slogan representing American exceptionalism and promoting an idealistic or romanticized American past. While some scholars, journalists, and commentators have called the slogan a loaded phrase representing racism, regarding it as dog-whistle politics and coded language that excludes certain groups, others regard the slogan as patriotic and positive.
History
Ronald Reagan
"Let's make America great again" was famously used in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. At the time, the United States was suffering from a worsening economy at home marked by stagflation. Using the country's economic distress as a springboard for his campaign, Reagan used the slogan to stir a sense of patriotism among the electorate. During his acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican National Convention, Reagan said, "For those without job opportunities, we'll stimulate new opportunities, particularly in the inner cities where they live. For those who've abandoned hope, we'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again."Bill Clinton
The phrase was used in speeches by Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign. President Clinton also used the phrase in a radio commercial aired for wife Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential primary campaign. During the 2016 electoral campaign, in which Hillary Clinton opposed Trump, he suggested that Trump's version, used as a campaign rallying cry, was a message to White Southerners that Trump was promising to "give you an economy you had 50 years ago, and... move you back up on the social totem pole and other people down."Use by Donald Trump
In December 2011, following speculation that he would challenge sitting president Barack Obama in the 2012 United States presidential election, Trump released a statement in which he said he was unwilling to rule out running as a presidential candidate in the future, explaining "I must leave all of my options open because, above all else, we must make America great again." In December 2011, he also published a book using as a subtitle the similar phrase "Making America #1 Again", which in a 2015 reissue was changed to "Make America Great Again!" On January 1, 2012, a group of Trump supporters filed paperwork with the Texas secretary of state's office to create the "Make America Great Again Party", which would have allowed Trump to be that party's nominee if he had decided to become a third-party candidate in the presidential election.Trump began using the slogan formally on November 7, 2012, the day after Barack Obama won his re-election against Mitt Romney. Trump used the slogan in an August 2013 interview with Jonathan Karl. By his own account, he first considered "We Will Make America Great", but did not feel like it had the right "ring" to it. "Make America Great" was his next slogan idea, but upon further reflection, he felt that it was a slight to America because it implied that America was never great. He eventually selected the phrase "Make America Great Again", later claiming that he was unaware of Reagan's use in 1980 until 2015, but noted that "he didn't trademark it." On November 12, he signed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office requesting exclusive rights to use the slogan for political purposes. It was registered as a service mark on July 14, 2015, after Trump formally began his 2016 presidential campaign and demonstrated that he was using the slogan for the purpose stated on the application.
However, Trump did not trademark the phrase in commerce. On August 5, 2015, radio personality Bobby Bones took note of this and successfully filed a trademark for the phrase's use in commerce. Two days later Bones tweeted at Trump, offering the use of his slogan back in exchange for a $100,000 donation to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. On October 29, Bones followed up the tweet with an image of a check from the Trump Organization. The amount on the check was undisclosed and Bones said that Trump could "have slogan back".
Following Trump's first election, the website of his presidential transition was established at greatagain.gov. Trump said in 2017 and 2018 that the slogan of his 2020 reelection campaign would be "Keep America Great" and he sought to trademark it. However, Trump's 2020 campaign continued to use the "Make America Great Again" slogan. Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, used the phrase "make America great again, again" in his 2020 Republican National Convention speech, garnering ridicule for implying that Trump's first term had failed. In late 2021, this phrase became the name of a pro-Trump Super-PAC, which was also mocked. A 2020 executive order, titled "Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture", was nicknamed "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" by proponents and the press.
Less than a week after Trump left office, he spoke to advisors about possibly establishing a third party, which he suggested might be named either the "Patriot Party" or "Make America Great Again Party". In his first few days out of office, he also supported Arizona state party chairwoman Kelli Ward, who likewise called for the creation of a "MAGA Party". In late January 2021, the former president viewed the proposed MAGA Party as leverage to prevent Republican senators from voting to convict him during the Senate impeachment trial, and to field challengers to Republicans who voted for his impeachment in the House. The phrase was used again as the official slogan of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. On June 3, 2023, Trump called his supporters Magadonians, prompting mockery on social media.
MAGA hat
During the 2016 campaign, Trump often used the slogan, especially by wearing MAGA hats emblazoned with the phrase in white letters, which soon became popular among his supporters. The slogan was so important to the campaign that at one point it spent more on making the hatssold for $25 each on its websitethan on polling, consultants, or television commercials. Millions were sold, and Trump estimated that counterfeit versions outnumbered the real hat ten to one. "...but it was a slogan, and every time somebody buys one, that's an advertisement." The hat's white-on-red design saw great success as a symbol of unity among Trump supporters.Some critics have compared its use to other politically charged symbols, such as the Confederate flag, while supporters view it as an expression of patriotism and political identity. Due to its association with Trump and his policies, the hat has been a source of controversy. Some individuals view it as a divisive or provocative symbol, while others see it as an exercise of their political beliefs.
In January 2019, it gained media attention during a highly publicized standoff between a group of high schoolers wearing the hat and Omaha tribe leader Nathan Phillips. The incident was initially perceived by some as racially charged; however, subsequent video footage led to a reassessment of the situation by multiple media outlets. On December 29, 2022, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Vancouver, Washington, ruled that wearing a MAGA hat is considered protected speech under the First Amendment. A former teacher had worn a MAGA hat to class to school and described facing verbal harassment and retaliation from school employees.
Use on social media sites
Donald Trump took the campaign slogan to social media, using the hashtags #makeamericagreatagain and its acronym #maga. In response to criticism regarding his frequent and untraditional usage of social media, Trump defended himself by tweeting "My use of social media is not Presidentialit's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!" on July 1, 2017.In the first half of 2017, Trump posted his slogan on Twitter 33 times. In an article for Bloomberg News, Mark Whitehouse noted: "A regression analysis suggests the phrase adds 51,000 to a post's retweet-and-favorite count, which is important given that the average Trump tweet attracts a total of 107,000." Trump attributed his victory to social media when he said, "I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches, and social media." According to RiteTag, the estimated hourly statistics for #maga on Twitter alone include: 1,304 unique tweets, 5,820,000 hashtag exposure, and 3,424 retweets with 14% of #maga tweets including images, 55% including links, and 51% including mentions.
Accusations of racism
Regarding its use since 2015, the phrase "Make America Great Again" is considered a loaded phrase and "dog whistle" by some. Marissa Melton, a Voice of America journalist, among others, argue it is a loaded phrase because it "doesn't just appeal to people who hear it as racist coded language, but also to those who have felt a loss of status as other groups have become more empowered." Sarah Churchwell argues the slogan now resonates as "America First" did in the early 1940s, with the idea "that the true version of America is the America that looks like me, the American fantasy I imagine existed before it was diluted with other races and other people."Writing opinion for the Los Angeles Times, Robin Abcarian wrote that "earing a 'Make America Great Again' hat is not necessarily an overt expression of racism. But if you wear one, it's a pretty good indication that you share, admire or appreciate President Trump's racist views about Mexicans, Muslims and border walls." The Detroit Free Press and the Los Angeles Times reported how several of their readers rejected this characterization and did not believe the slogan or MAGA hats are evidence of racism, seeing them more in patriotic or American nationalist terms. Los Angeles Times columnist Nicholas Goldberg described MAGA as both one of the worst campaign slogans ever and "a fabulous campaign slogan", writing: "It was vague enough to appeal to optimists generally, while leaving plenty of room for bitter and resentful voters to conclude that we were finally going back to the days when they ran the world." Actor Bryan Cranston said of the slogan: "So just ask yourself from, from an African American experience, when was it ever great in America for the African American? When was it great? If you're making it great again, it's not including them."
A 2018 study that used text mining and semantic network analytics of Twitter text and hashtags networks found that the "#MakeAmericaGreatAgain" and "#MAGA" hashtags were commonly used by white supremacist and white nationalist users, and had been used as "an organizing discursive space" for far-right extremists globally.