It’s already pretty easy to spot a Trump supporter in public — all you have to do is look for the red Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat.
Nevertheless, Trump’s most devoted MAGA followers might soon be flashing a “Trump Card” to demonstrate their support for the defeated former president, after his campaign floated the idea in an email on Wednesday.
The email offered up four potential red-and-gold designs for the card, including one with a spelling error and another with an eagle that critics compared to a Nazi symbol. Trump supporters were asked to choose their favourite, although a link on the page reportedly sent users straight to a donation site for Trump’s campaign.
“The card you select will be carried by Patriots all around the Country. They will be a sign of your dedicated support to our movement to SAVE AMERICA, and I’m putting my full trust in you,” one email from Trump’s Save America PAC said.
“We’re about to launch our Official Trump Cards, which will be reserved for President Trump’s STRONGEST supporters,” the PAC said in a followup email, according to Business Insider.
Four proposed Trump Card designs are shown.
It’s unclear what the cards will cost or what they will be used for aside from showing the user’s devotion to Trump.
The text “Official Trump Card” is featured prominently on all four card designs along with Trump’s signature, the Save America logo and the member’s name and ID in gold.
One card appears to feature part of the presidential seal as a watermark, despite a federal law that prohibits the seal from being used for such purposes. Another prominently features a gold eagle with its wings spread and its head turned to the side.
Some critics on Twitter were quick to compare the bird to the Nazi War Eagle — a symbol used under Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich in Germany.
The Nazis used a few different versions of an eagle with its wings out and its claws grasping a swastika. A massive version of the bird once presided over the Nazi-run Reichstag during Hitler’s rule, and the Nazi eagle is now considered a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Various depictions of the Nazi eagle have shown it facing either direction. The eagle facing the viewer’s right is known as the parteiadler (the party eagle), while the eagle facing to the left is called the reichsadler (the imperial eagle).
While some were eager to compare Trump supporters to those who followed Hitler, the ADL also pointed out that the eagle is not exclusively a Nazi symbol. It has been embraced by many cultures and governments over the centuries, including the United States. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States, and it appears in the presidential seal and on other symbols of the country.
A similar debate erupted around the Trump campaign last year after it started selling a T-shirt with an eagle in a similar pose.
Another of the proposed Trump card designs includes a typo, with “official” spelled “offical.”
The Trump cards also provoked conversations about COVID-19 vaccine passports — another proposed card that some Trump supporters have denounced as government overreach.
Neither Trump nor his campaign has publicly commented on the eagle comparisons.
It’s unclear when the Trump cards will be released or how they will be selected, but the former president thinks all four designs are “BEAUTIFUL,” according to his campaign email.
“We should let the American People decide,” he supposedly told his staffers. “They ALWAYS know best!”
The American people chose Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, but Trump has continued to denounce that result with his baseless claims of voter fraud.
His lawyers suffered over 60 defeats in court while failing to prove his claims, but he kept pushing those claims for months after the election, including immediately before his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The former president was impeached a second time for his role in inciting the attack, and a majority of senators voted to convict him. That vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to punish him for his actions.
Trump has not declared his intention to run for re-election in 2024, though he has continued to solicit political donations and has resumed holding campaign-style rallies with his MAGA faithful in recent months.
He’s also resumed issuing his Twitter-style attacks against his opponents, though those now appear as statements issued on his website and through his spokespeople. On Thursday, for example, he suggested that the U.S. women’s soccer team lost to Canada at the Olympics because they were too “woke.”
Trump remains banned from most social media platforms for egging on rioters prior to the Capitol attack.
Hundreds of his supporters have been arrested and charged in connection with that attack after Trump told them to “fight like hell” to overturn his election loss. Neo-Nazi groups have since been identified as part of that crowd.
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” he told supporters before the riot. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
Save America echoed that emphasis on strength in its fundraising pitch on Wednesday, when it said the cards were reserved for Trump’s “strongest” supporters.
It’s unclear whether the accused rioters fall into the category.
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