Anyone who’s anyone in U.S. politics today has their own branded baseball cap. Republican, Democrat, or independent voters can now easily be identified by the catchy slogan they wear on their head.

Chinese entrepreneur Wang, who asked to be identified solely by his surname for privacy reasons, has never cared who gets elected. Since 2016, his loyalty has been available to any side for a blanket $14.99 — the retail price of one of his hats.

Wang runs his business from Ligezhuang Town, a thriving hub for hat manufacturers that forms part of Jiaozhou, in China’s eastern Shandong province. Though small, the town makes one-third of the world’s baseball caps, about 500 million a year, with exports to Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa.

Roughly 30% of the population is involved in the industry, and Wang grew up here surrounded by factories producing all manner of weird and wonderful designs. Yet, the MAGA hat was something else.

“Make America Great Again” — MAGA for short — was the campaign slogan used by Donald Trump for his first successful U.S. presidential bid, in 2016. When he first appeared at a Republican Party rally in a baseball cap with the phrase emblazoned in bold, capital letters, it was an instant hit with his supporters, who quickly rushed out to buy their own.

Wang, who is in his early 30s, still recalls when he first came across the slogan on stacks of bright-red MAGA hats at a friend’s factory nearly a decade ago. He had no idea what the words meant — he pronounces “make” as “may-keh” in his Jiaozhou accent — but he could definitely smell a business opportunity.

As his friend had excess inventory, Wang offered to take it off his hands, paying about 1,800 yuan ($250) for each box of 200 hats. He then opened an account on the cross-border e-commerce platform Amazon to reach buyers in the United States. Noticing that most prices on the website ended in “.99,” he arbitrarily chose to sell his hats for $14.99.

For shipping, he used an Amazon service that helps assign distribution warehouses — or “fulfillment centers” — across the U.S. using various codes, such as MIA1 for Miami and VUGA for Pittsburgh. Again, Wang knew nothing about the country’s geography or what the codes stood for, he just sent his products to the address he was given. He paid the courier company UPS 1,600 yuan to ship each box to the U.S. by air freight, which took about 10 days. The rest was out of his hands.

Wang started selling two or three boxes a day online, and sales remained steady throughout Trump’s first term in office, from 2016 to 2020. The president’s official online store claimed, “We are proud to say that all our products are 100% made in America.” However, as its MAGA hats were priced at $55, it’s likely many of his supporters eschewed the official store and plumped for cheaper ones made in Jiaozhou.

The medium is the message

In November 2020, Trump failed in his bid for reelection, losing to Democrat candidate Joe Biden. Initially, he refused to concede defeat, claiming that the ballot had been “rigged.” Two months later, his supporters — many of them in MAGA hats — stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., in protest.

Wang largely forgot about Trump and U.S. politics following the election. After all, the hats had simply been a side hustle to his handicrafts factory, where he made most of his money. His hat store on Amazon ticked over, but he paid little attention. That was, until sometime in mid-2024, when sales suddenly jumped from a maximum of three boxes a day to 30.

He checked the news to discover that another U.S. presidential election was in full swing. Trump was once again vying for the White House, and although his campaign slogan was slightly different, those original, iconic red hats were back in fashion.

This time, there wasn’t enough surplus stock from his friend’s factory for Wang to keep up with the huge demand. So, he searched Amazon for “Trump hats” in Chinese, picked a random design from a sea of red, and partnered with another factory in Ligezhuang to handle production.

In industry lingo, a MAGA hat is a six-panel cap, meaning it’s made of six large fabric panels. Production involves 20 processes across four stages, including design, cutting, stitching, embroidery, reinforcement, assembly, and packaging.

Ligezhuang has a range of factories, from big plants to small family workshops. Wang chose to partner with one of the larger operators, with a monthly output capacity of 40,000 hats. All he had to do was settle on a design.

According to legend, Trump designed the MAGA hat himself, choosing red to represent the Republican Party, and the Times New Roman font for the slogan. When he first wore one on stage — at a rally on July 23, 2015, in Texas — the cap was white with stitched blue lettering.

Wang began working with a designer on a prototype, and after two hours of trial and error, they landed on a final version.

As the election gathered pace on the other side of the Pacific, business was booming in Ligezhuang. Wang had initially been placing orders with his partner for 200 hats, but this soon increased to 600, then 2,000, and eventually 5,000. As soon as he shipped one batch, he would replenish his stock.

Then, on July 14 last year, Trump was shot in the ear in a failed assassination attempt during a speech in Pennsylvania — and Wang’s sales skyrocketed. Immediately following the news, his online store received its biggest single order, for 2,000 hats. The ensuing demand far outweighed the supply, forcing him to place orders simultaneously with several factories, as well as with small workshops operated by friends, relatives, and total strangers.

It still wasn’t enough. Sometimes, even before he’d received the hats, Wang would feel he’d not ordered enough, so would increase his orders, causing chaos for his suppliers. However, buyers were also capricious, with some canceling their orders before the hats had even reached the U.S. warehouses. Up to a third of Wang’s orders were being returned.

In these conditions, tallying Wang’s accounts would have been impossible, even if he had had the time to try. So he didn’t. He was just content with making money, estimating that he banked as much as 300,000 yuan in the days after Trump was shot.

At this point, he was really hoping the Republican candidate would go on to win the election.

Trial and error

In the run-up to the 2024 election, two main varieties of hats were popular among Trump supporters: the six-panel MAGA caps, and a red sun visor with a blond, Trump-style wig. Wang felt the latter was too niche, while the former was already available on countless Amazon stores, making it tough for a newcomer like him to make an impact. So, he decided to innovate with his own hats.

He remembered learning at school that the U.S. is a big country with diverse climates. As some places might be too hot or humid for traditional baseball caps, he asked the factory to make mesh hats, aka “trucker caps,” which are more breathable.

The first batch of 600 sold out in two days and hit No. 1 on Amazon’s rankings for new releases. However, by the time the second batch was delivered, mesh MAGA hats were everywhere on the web, and his competition steamed ahead.

Wang then began producing hats in different color combinations — solid gray, black and gold, and even a Christmas version in red and green.

On July 21, Biden dropped out of the presidential race for health reasons, and was quickly replaced by his vice president, Kamala Harris. It wasn’t long before her campaign was promoting its own cap, taking design cues from U.S. pop singer Chappell Roan’s merchandise: A camouflage background with orange embroidered letters saying “Harris Walz,” the names of the candidate and her running mate, Tim Walz. The official store sold them for $40.

Wang downloaded an image of the design and partnered with a factory to start making an embroidered mesh version. More in apathy than fairness, he also priced these at $14.99, the same as his MAGA hats. However, in the end, he sold fewer than five.

Another opportunity to innovate presented itself on Oct. 27, when Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the world’s richest man, appeared at a Trump rally in New York City wearing a black MAGA hat that he described as “dark gothic MAGA.”

With no physical sample to hand, Wang took a screenshot, but no one at his supplier recognized the font used for the slogan. As time was tight, they knocked out a design and rushed into mass production. It was only after the first batch of 600 hats was shipped that Wang discovered the designer had misspelled “Again” as “Agein.” Only 40 or 50 were sold, with several Amazon reviews pointing out the mistake.

Out of the game

At the start of 2025, with Trump back in the White House, sales on Wang’s store began to decline. Then, in early March, he opened Amazon to find that all his products had been “directly delisted” due to intellectual property infringement. Trump had registered the slogan as a trademark, meaning Wang’s hats could no longer be sold.

Trump did not actually come up with the phrase “Make America Great Again.” It was originally used by Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. president and fellow Republican, in his 1980 election campaign. However, Trump — ever the businessman — is known for registering everything related to him as a trademark. For example, Empire by Trump and Success by Trump are two cologne brands, while The Spa at Trump is a nationwide chain of spa centers.

According to Forbes magazine, Trump holds about 600 trademarks in 87 countries. In China, the U.S. president has registered transliterations of his name, including “Tangnade Telangpu,” “Tangnade Chuanpu,” and “Chuanpu.” He’s filed four lawsuits in China against the man who preregistered “Trump” as a trademark, losing each time.

When Wang’s products were delisted, he still had about 6,000 hats in Amazon fulfillment centers across the U.S. Unable to sell them, he had no option but to have warehouse staff dispose of them, costing him $6,000.

Caps are the lifeblood of Ligezhuang. But in the U.S., more than 10,000 kilometers away, they have become a battleground. In the decade between President Trump’s two inaugurations, the MAGA hat became a political statement — and it spawned no shortage of copycats.

His fans can often be seen in colorful hats saying “Trump Was Right About Everything,” while opponents will sport headwear saying “Trump Is An Idiot.” When the American president talked about absorbing Canada into the U.S., Doug Ford, premier of Ontario province, responded by wearing a MAGA-style cap emblazoned with “Canada Is Not For Sale.”

Those who love Trump buy hats. Those who dislike him also buy hats. For manufacturers, it’s a win-win.

After closing his Amazon store, Wang learned that “Trump 2028” merchandise was becoming popular, and he also saw caps online with “Obama 2028,” stemming from a suggestion among some Democrats to have former two-term president Barack Obama run in the 2028 presidential election should Trump attempt to secure an unprecedented third term. But Wang had no interest, and instead decided he was out of the high-risk hat game for good.

He shifted focus back to his handicrafts factory, and started taking orders from a U.S. client for necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that his friend’s business had passed on for “being too small.” He says the client sent more than 30 jewelry designs, including for “crude and ostentatious” gold chains.

Business was not exactly stable, but Wang was making about 100,000 yuan a month in revenue. Yet, although the MAGA hats were out of his life, Trump’s influence was about to be felt in a different way.

When the White House slapped massive tariffs on Chinese goods entering the U.S., Wang’s client contacted him to suspend the jewelry order. This was happening to manufacturers across town. Wang had no option but to halt production and send his employees home on basic wages.

He initially thought about exploring new markets in Europe, but that would require advertising and competing with established players. Wang didn’t know where to start, so he didn’t. He took a break, spending his days fishing, drinking, and playing mahjong. After a decade running a company, he finally had time to relax.

On May 12, China and the U.S. issued a joint statement about an agreement to reduce the tariffs. Four days later, Wang’s client emailed to restart production, so he put down his fishing rod, and his workers returned to the factory floor.

Although once largely indifferent to Trump, Wang has since developed stronger opinions, now describing the U.S. president as “fickle and unreliable.” He says, “It’s annoying. You see, I supported him, but he eventually got me delisted.”

Reported by Jiang Yifan.

A version of this article originally appeared in Zhengmian Lianjie. It has been translated and edited for brevity and clarity, and is republished here with permission.

Translator: Vincent Chow; editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.

(Header image: Visuals from DBenitostock/Getty Creative and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)