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HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Trump faithful at a recent campaign rally pored over red MAGA hats and T-shirts with the former president’s mugshot, but one image has emerged as the must-have of the 2024 campaign: The clenched fist.
The photo of a bloodied but unbowed former President Donald Trump with a raised fist and an American flag waving in the background has been emblazoned on clothing, flags, coffee mugs and just about anything else that will take an image.
And Mr. Trump’s backers are eager for it all.
“This is the most iconic image,” said Jameson Fitzpatrick of New Oxford after picking up a T-shirt while attending his first Trump rally. “We haven’t seen anything inspirational like that in a political candidate in a century.”
“You can’t fake this stuff,” he said. “I mean, the guy stood up after being shot and signaled to the crowd, not only am I OK, but we’re still going to fight.”
Mr. Trump’s miraculous escape from a gunman’s bullet — his wounded ear showing that he was about a quarter of an inch away from death — has proved to be nothing short of divine intervention for many of his supporters.
“Jesus is my savior, but he’s the country’s savior,” said Valerie Mansberger, who showed up 12 hours early to see Mr. Trump at the rally in Harrisburg. “I saw this shirt, and that just sums it up.”
She said she had already bought small flags with the image and plunked one of them in her garden. She said she put another one of them up on a “Trump wall” at her home.
“This shirt represents the fact that Donald Trump fights for the people of the country. He fights to save us,” the 53-year-old substitute teacher said. “He puts himself in harm’s way to protect the citizens, the constitutional values that we have. He took a bullet, and that still didn’t stop him.”
Mr. Trump forged the fist-raised image on his own. According to his telling, once he felt the bullet graze his ear he dropped to the ground and was pounced on by Secret Service agents using their bodies to shield him.
But as they tried to hurry him off the stage, he figured many of his supporters would wonder if he was alright. So he poked through the agents, raised his fist, and shouted, “Fight! fight! fight!” It didn’t hurt that from the vantage point of some of the photographers, he was framed by an American flag fluttering behind him.
Even hard-core Trump opponents recognized the power of the image at the time, and it helped fuel some of the nasty conspiracy theories that the shooting was staged.
Those doing the selling of the merchandise know what they’ve got in the image.
“The ’Fight Fight Fight’ shirt is a piece of history on your chest. It’s the hottest shirt out,” said one vendor, who gave only his first name, Lee. “I mean this, this picture here is going to go down in history — in infamy.”
He said he has sold hundreds of the shirts.
Other items for sale include “Trumpamania” muscle shirts and hats that read “Guns, God, Trump.” Another shooting-inspired shirt features Mr. Trump flashing the double-bird, emblazoned with “You missed!”
It helps that the Trump merchandise is a relative bargain. The summer’s other hot seller, a Taylor Swift Eras Tour T-shirt, can go for $45.
Mr. Fitzpatrick said he got his Trump fist-pump shirt for just $10.
“I’m cheap — so it works out well,” he said.
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