The bond between Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump is built not only on their shared interests in limited government, social media and golf, but also, it seems, on their common affinity for merch. Not long after Trump’s announcement that Musk would join Vivek Ramaswamy as co-leaders of a new department of government efficiency, or DOGE, Musk took to his social platform X to let his approximately 204 million followers to rave about the merch (he wrote “the merch will be”, followed by three fire emojis). Even before it was clear what form the DOGE would take and before any staff members had been hired, Musk was thinking about the brand extensions.
There have always been government souvenirs, including White House M&M’s and a House of Representatives brooch, but this was taking the promise of political shopping to a new level. Merchandise has always been a part of Musk’s empire-building, just as it has been part of Trump’s. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has a digital storefront that sells assorted T-shirts (among other offerings), notably the “Occupy Mars” style that Musk often wore while stumping for Trump and various “Starship” logo looks, as well as other accessories.
Read more: Want to learn how to dress like Donald Trump? Then you need to watch this film X has its own shop, featuring black-on-black logo caps and T-shirts that look a lot like the black “Make America Great Again” caps that Musk favours. Even the Boring Co, Musk’s tunnel v.