Make America Great Again

Trump's MAGA sign used during his 2016 presidential campaign
Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign poster
A button from Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign

"Make America Great Again" (abbreviated as MAGA) is a campaign slogan used in American politics that was popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. Ronald Reagan used the similar slogan "Let's Make America Great Again" in his successful 1980 presidential campaign. Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen has called Trump's use of the phrase as "probably the most resonant campaign slogan in recent history," citing large majorities of Americans who believed the country was in decline.[1][2] The slogan has become a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in the arts, entertainment and politics.

Use by Ronald Reagan

"Let's Make America Great Again" was first used in President Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, when the United States was suffering from a worsening economy at home marked by stagflation.[3][4][5][6] 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.[7]

Use by Bill Clinton

The phrase was also used in speeches[8] by Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign; however, it was not a slogan of the campaign.[9] Clinton also used the phrase in a radio commercial aired for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential primary campaign.[10]

During the 2016 electoral campaign, Clinton 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."[11]

Use by Donald Trump

Donald Trump wearing a Make America Great Again cap during his 2016 campaign.

On September 16, 2011, Roger Stone, Trump's longtime political advisor and a veteran of Reagan's 1980 campaign, tweeted the slogan: "Make America Great Again --TRUMP HUCKABEE 2012 #nomormons".[12] Two months later, in December 2011, Trump made 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".[13] Also in December 2011, he published a book using as a subtitle the similar phrase "Making America #1 Again" — which in a 2015 reissue would be changed to "Make America Great Again!"[14]

Candidate Trump popularized the slogan "Make America Great Again" by stitching it on to a widely distributed cap.

Trump himself began using the slogan formally on November 7, 2012, the day after Barack Obama won his reelection against Mitt Romney. By his own account, Trump first considered "We Will Make America Great", but did not feel like it had the right "ring" to it.[15] "Make America Great" was his next name, but upon further reflection, he felt that it was a slight to America because it implied that America was never great. After selecting "Make America Great Again", Trump immediately had an attorney register it. (Trump later said that he was unaware of Reagan's use in 1980 until 2015, but noted that "he didn't trademark it".)[15] 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.[16][15][17]

Banner displaying "Vote To Make America Great Again" on a roadside in California shortly after the November 2016 election.

During the campaign, Trump often used the slogan, especially by wearing hats emblazoned with the phrase in white letters, which soon became popular among his supporters.[18] The slogan was so important to the campaign that it spent more on making the hats – sold for $25 each on its website – than on polling, consultants, or television commercials; the candidate claimed that "millions" were sold.[15] Following Trump's election, the website of his presidential transition was established at greatagain.gov.[19] President Trump stated in January 2017 that the slogan of his 2020 reelection campaign would be "Keep America Great" and immediately ordered a lawyer to trademark it.[15] Trump tweeted “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” on September 1, 2018,[20] apparently in response to Meghan McCain telling about 3,000 mourners at John McCain’s memorial service “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.” [21]

Social media usage

Donald Trump took the campaign slogan to social media (primarily Twitter), using the hashtags #makeamericagreatagain and its abbreviation #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 Presidential - it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!" on July 1, 2017.[22] This comment justified his usage of social media as main method of communicating to his base.

In the first half of 2017 alone, Trump has repeated his slogan on Twitter 33 times.[23] In an article for Bloomberg, Whitehouse noted "A regression analysis suggests the phrase adds (very roughly) 51,000 to a post's retweet-and-favorite count, which is a big deal given that the average Trump tweet attracts a total of 107,000."[23]

Trump attributed his victory to social media when he said "I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches, and social media."[24] According to RiteTag,[25] the estimated hourly statistics for #maga on Twitter alone include: 1304 unique tweets, 5,820,000 hashtag exposure, and 3424 retweets with 14% of #maga tweets including images, 55% including links, and 51% including mentions.[26]

Donald Trump created his Twitter account in March 2009. His follower count increased significantly following his announcement to run for president in the 2016 presidential election, with particularly notable spikes occurring after both securing the Republican party nomination and winning the presidency.[27]

Use by others

In politics

In 2011, Christine O'Donnell published a book about her Senate campaign in the 2010 Delaware special election titled Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes To Make America Great Again.[28]

After Donald Trump popularized the use of the phrase, the phrase and modifications of it became widely used to refer to his election campaign and his politics. Trump's primary opponents, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, began using "Make America Great Again" in speeches, inciting Trump to send cease-and-desist letters to them. Trump claimed after the election that the hats "were copied, unfortunately. It was knocked off by 10 to one [...] but it was a slogan, and every time somebody buys one, that's an advertisement".[15] Cruz later sold hats featuring, "Make Trump Debate Again", in response to Trump's boycotting the Iowa January 28, 2016 debate.[29]

In June 2017, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, rebuked Trump over withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. The last sentence of the speech delivered by him was "make our planet great again".[30]

In art, entertainment, and media

The most widespread uses of the phrase and its variants were in media, especially television comedies. For example:

References

  1. ↑ Schoen, Douglas (April 8, 2016). "Donald Trump saw what politicians ignored. And then he disrupted American politics".
  2. ↑ Edwards-Levy, Ariel (November 18, 2015). "Americans Aren't Sure Anything In America Works Anymore". Huff Post.
  3. ↑ "Ronald Reagan's Classic 1980 Campaign Poster Challenges Voters, "Let's Make America Great Again"". Iagreetosee.com. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  4. ↑ Matt Taibbi (March 25, 2015). "Donald Trump Claims Authorship of Legendary Reagan Slogan; Has Never Heard of Google". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Trump: The Last Time America Was Great Was During the Reagan Administration [VIDEO]". Daily Caller.com. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Presidential Politics, 20th Century Style: Reagan-Carter". MHHE.com. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Ronald Reagan's 1980 Campaign Poster, "Let's Make America Great Again"". I Agree to See. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Make America Great Again a Retrospective". Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  9. ↑ Margolin, Emma (September 9, 2016). "Who really first came up with the phrase 'Make America Great Again'?". NBC. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  10. ↑ "2008 Clinton Campaign Ad: Bill Clinton: Hillary Will "Make America Great Again"". Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Bill Clinton suggests Trump slogan racist – but he used the same one". Fox News. September 9, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  12. ↑ Roger Stone [@RogerJStoneJr] (September 16, 2011). "Make America Great Again -- TRUMP HUCKABEE 2012" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ↑ CNN, Andrew Kaczynski. "Trump was saying 'Make America Great Again' long before he claims he thought it up". CNN.
  14. ↑ Lozada, Carlos (August 31, 2015), "Book Party: Donald Trump's 'Time to Get Tough' is out in paperback. You'll never guess the new subtitle.", The Washington Post, retrieved June 17, 2017
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tumulty, Karen (January 18, 2017). "How Donald Trump came up with 'Make America Great Again'". The Washington Post.
  16. ↑ "U.S. Service Mark 4,773,272". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  17. ↑ "USPTO TSDR Case Viewer". tsdr.uspto.gov. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Why Donald Trump has given up on the hat". The Washington Post. January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  19. ↑ Smith, Allan (November 10, 2016). "'Great again': Donald Trump's .gov website is now live". Business Insider. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  20. ↑ "@realDonaldTrump". Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  21. ↑ "'America was always great': Meghan McCain rebukes Trump". Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  22. ↑ Graham, Chris (July 2, 2017). "'Modern day presidential': Donald Trump defends use of social media in Twitter storm". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  23. 1 2 "'Great Again' Is Trump's Magic Twitter Mantra". Bloomberg.com. August 21, 2017. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  24. ↑ "Donald Trump Defends Twitter Use as 'MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL'". EW.com. July 2, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  25. ↑ "#maga Hashtag Analytics | RiteTag: Find the best hashtags". ritetag.com. RiteKit is a SaaS (Software as a Service) Company for which RiteTag is a subscription-based product. p. https://ritetag.com/best-hashtags-for/donaldtrump. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  26. ↑ "#maga Hashtag Analytics | RiteTag: Find the best hashtags". ritetag.com. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  27. ↑ Trackalytics. "Donald J. Trump Twitter Followers Statistics - Trackalytics". www.trackalytics.com. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Christine O'Donnell promotes memoir". Politico. June 21, 2011. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
  29. ↑ Bradford Richardson (January 27, 2016). "Cruz sells 'Make Trump Debate Again' hats". The Hill. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  30. ↑ "Macron: 'Make our planet great again'". BBC News. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  31. ↑ "'South Park' Depicts the Brutal Rape of Donald Trump". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  32. ↑ "AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  33. ↑ Koblin, John (March 8, 2016). "John Oliver Sells Out of 'Make Donald Drumpf Again' Caps". The New York Times.
  34. 1 2 Zorthian, Julia (March 31, 2016). "John Oliver's 'Donald Drumpf' Segment Broke HBO Viewing Records". TIME.
  35. ↑ Taylor, Adam (May 16, 2016), "This artist's interpretation of Putin and Trump kissing cannot be unseen", The Independent, retrieved June 12, 2017
  36. ↑ Snierson, Dan (January 5, 2016). "David Cross announces 'Making America Great Again!' nationwide stand-up tour". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  37. ↑ Legaspi, Althea (October 19, 2017). "Snoop Dogg Previews New EP With 'Make America Crip Again' Song". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  38. ↑ Holmes, Dave (May 31, 2017). "Five Things We Expect to See At the Make America Rock Again Tour". Esquire. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  39. ↑ Andre Vergara (May 6, 2016). "Bob Backlund returns to WWE to 'make Darren Young great again'". FoxSports.com. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
  40. ↑ Gray, Richard (May 4, 2016). "Bob Backlund To Make Darren Young Great Again (Smackdown Spoiler)". Wrestling News World. Gray Internet Technologies. Retrieved July 13, 2016. The gimmick includes the obvious play on Donald Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again."
  41. ↑ Chichizola, Corey (February 26, 2016). "The Purge: Election Year Wants You To Purge For America". CinemaBlend. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  42. ↑ Rosenberg, Adam (30 January 2018). "The next 'Purge' movie is a prequel and its first poster is an obvious MAGA shout-out". Mashable. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  43. ↑ de Moraes, Lisa (June 1, 2017). "'Sharknado 5' Gets Topical Title, Adds Cast & Vows To "Make America Bait Again"". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  44. ↑ Krashinsky, Susan (October 26, 2016). "General Mills hopes to hit sweet spot with new 'Smugglaroos' campaign". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  45. ↑ Izadi, Elahe (February 13, 2017). "Joy Villa wears a 'Make America Great Again' dress to Grammys". Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  46. ↑ Boult, Adam (September 5, 2016). "Anger over 'Twin Towers' cosplayers". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  47. ↑ Johnston, Rich (September 6, 2016). "Cosplay Controversy At Dragon*Con – 9/11 Or Rampage?". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  48. ↑ Sandle, Tim (September 5, 2016). "Dragon Con sci-fi fans trigger 9/11 controversy". Digital Journal. digitaljournal.com. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  49. ↑ Jr, Cleve R. Wootson (October 7, 2017). "Even a video game's 'Make America Nazi-free Again' slogan ticked some people off". Washington Post. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  50. ↑ Jones, Jones. "Octavia Butler's 1998 Dystopian Novel Features a Fascistic Presidential Candidate Who Promises to "Make America Great Again"". Open Culture. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.