Make America Great Again

2015catchphraseclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Make America Great Again is Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign slogan that turned into a viral internet fixation in July 2015 after Trump was photographed wearing a red trucker hat bearing the phrase at the US-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas. The hat set off mass photoshops, parody Twitter accounts, sold-out merch runs, and a wave of 'Make ___ ___ Again' riffs that swapped its text for jokes and protest messages.

trump memessnowclone memescatchphrase memespolitical satire memesmeme merchandise

Overview

The core meme object is the bright red five-panel hat with white embroidery reading 'Make America Great Again,' worn either as a sincere political statement or as an ironic prop by people mocking Trump4. Internet users photoshop new text onto the front panel, swapping the slogan for jokes, protest messages, or absurdist replacements while keeping the hat's silhouette instantly recognizable3. The phrase itself gets treated as a mad-lib, generating riffs like 'Make America Gay Again' and 'Make Somalia Great Again' that inherit the visual grammar of the original6.

Beyond the hat, MAGA works as a catchphrase used earnestly by Trump supporters and sarcastically by critics, often paired with the hashtag #MakeAmericaGreatAgain3. The hat's specific look, a stiff-front trucker style with a braided cord strung across where the brim meets the crown, was singled out by the Los Angeles Times as garish enough to invite ridicule on its own merits, prompting Twitter jokes that Trump could work as a train conductor if the presidency did not pan out2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Trump campaign (offline debut) / Twitter and Instagram (viral spread)
Creator
Donald Trump
Date
2015

Donald Trump adopted 'Make America Great Again' as his official 2016 campaign slogan in June 2015, launching branded merchandise around the same time he announced his Republican primary bid5. Ronald Reagan actually used the same line as a backbone of his 1980 presidential campaign, printing it on Reagan-Bush pin buttons, and other Republican politicians had recycled versions of the phrase in the years since1. Trump publicly claimed authorship in 2015, telling reporters 'The line of Make America great again, the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago' and joking he might have copyrighted it, prompting Rolling Stone to point out how well documented the Reagan-era usage was1.

The slogan drew little online attention until Trump wore a red hat bearing the phrase during his July 23, 2015 visit to Laredo, Texas near the US-Mexico border, where he had traveled to talk immigration4. Photos of Trump in the cap, worn over his famous coif, hit mainstream news the same afternoon and kicked off the reaction that would define the meme4.

How It Spread

Within days of the Laredo appearance, The Hollywood Reporter called the hat a 'must-have accessory' for both die-hard Trump fans and the haters aiming to use his own weapon against him, noting that supporters and mockers were often indistinguishable in the resulting selfie flood3. The official $25 hat, previously sold only at Trump Tower in New York, went on sale online in late July 2015, and several shipments at the physical store sold out while bootleg versions flooded ecommerce sites3. E! Online pointed out that Trump had already claimed to trademark the phrase, ignoring Reagan's decades-older use4.

The photoshop side of the meme kicked off in late July 2015, when Funny or Die published a collection of alternate slogans pasted onto the hat and Reddit user iamclaytonbigsby posted the Laredo photo to r/photoshopbattles, treating it as fresh remix material5. Two parody Twitter accounts, @trumphat and @DonaldTrumphat, launched on July 23 and 24, 2015 respectively, with @trumphat's debut post reading 'hello, from texas. #notmexico #trumphat'2. The Los Angeles Times noted that between those two hat accounts and the older @TrumpsHair, Trump had three parody Twitter accounts dedicated to features from the neck up2.

How to Use This Meme

Two dominant formats do most of the work. First, swap words in the slogan itself while keeping the 'Make ___ ___ Again' cadence, then either tweet it, chant it, or embroider it on a cap. Second, for photoshop versions, common convention is to keep the red hat, white embroidery, and stiff front panel untouched while replacing only the text, since the visual container is what makes the reference land2. Political riffs typically pair the swap with a specific target (Mike Pence's LGBTQ record, Trump's Russia ties, a state or sports team) rather than swapping words at random6.

Cultural Impact

The 'Make ___ Great Again' template pushed well beyond Trump's base. Actor Alec Baldwin posted an Instagram photo on January 6, 2017 wearing a red MAGA hat with the slogan translated into Russian to troll then-president-elect Trump over his alleged Russia ties, and around the same window US Ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz was photographed with a 'MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN' cap that drew backlash because Somalia had been named in Trump's initial travel-ban executive order5.

The 'Make America Gay Again' riff drew the widest coverage of the derivatives. Neighbors of the Aspen, Colorado home where Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Sue were staying hung a rainbow banner with that slogan on a stone pillar at the shared driveway in late December 2017, timed to protest Pence's record on LGBTQ policy6. A Pitkin County Sheriff's deputy told The Aspen Times 'you couldn't miss it' and said the family who hung the sign came out to feed the deputies and Secret Service agents chili and corn muffins6. Mashable framed the banner as a clear message to Pence over his openly held anti-LGBTQ beliefs, and the Aspen Times' own tweet of the sign drew more than 6,500 retweets and 16,000 likes in under five days7.

Frequently Asked Questions

Make America Great Again

2015catchphraseclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Make America Great Again is Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign slogan that turned into a viral internet fixation in July 2015 after Trump was photographed wearing a red trucker hat bearing the phrase at the US-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas. The hat set off mass photoshops, parody Twitter accounts, sold-out merch runs, and a wave of 'Make ___ ___ Again' riffs that swapped its text for jokes and protest messages.

trump memes snowclone memes catchphrase memes political satire memes meme merchandise

Overview

The core meme object is the bright red five-panel hat with white embroidery reading 'Make America Great Again,' worn either as a sincere political statement or as an ironic prop by people mocking Trump4. Internet users photoshop new text onto the front panel, swapping the slogan for jokes, protest messages, or absurdist replacements while keeping the hat's silhouette instantly recognizable3. The phrase itself gets treated as a mad-lib, generating riffs like 'Make America Gay Again' and 'Make Somalia Great Again' that inherit the visual grammar of the original6.

Beyond the hat, MAGA works as a catchphrase used earnestly by Trump supporters and sarcastically by critics, often paired with the hashtag #MakeAmericaGreatAgain3. The hat's specific look, a stiff-front trucker style with a braided cord strung across where the brim meets the crown, was singled out by the Los Angeles Times as garish enough to invite ridicule on its own merits, prompting Twitter jokes that Trump could work as a train conductor if the presidency did not pan out2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Trump campaign (offline debut) / Twitter and Instagram (viral spread)
Creator
Donald Trump
Date
2015

Donald Trump adopted 'Make America Great Again' as his official 2016 campaign slogan in June 2015, launching branded merchandise around the same time he announced his Republican primary bid5. Ronald Reagan actually used the same line as a backbone of his 1980 presidential campaign, printing it on Reagan-Bush pin buttons, and other Republican politicians had recycled versions of the phrase in the years since1. Trump publicly claimed authorship in 2015, telling reporters 'The line of Make America great again, the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago' and joking he might have copyrighted it, prompting Rolling Stone to point out how well documented the Reagan-era usage was1.

The slogan drew little online attention until Trump wore a red hat bearing the phrase during his July 23, 2015 visit to Laredo, Texas near the US-Mexico border, where he had traveled to talk immigration4. Photos of Trump in the cap, worn over his famous coif, hit mainstream news the same afternoon and kicked off the reaction that would define the meme4.

How It Spread

Within days of the Laredo appearance, The Hollywood Reporter called the hat a 'must-have accessory' for both die-hard Trump fans and the haters aiming to use his own weapon against him, noting that supporters and mockers were often indistinguishable in the resulting selfie flood3. The official $25 hat, previously sold only at Trump Tower in New York, went on sale online in late July 2015, and several shipments at the physical store sold out while bootleg versions flooded ecommerce sites3. E! Online pointed out that Trump had already claimed to trademark the phrase, ignoring Reagan's decades-older use4.

The photoshop side of the meme kicked off in late July 2015, when Funny or Die published a collection of alternate slogans pasted onto the hat and Reddit user iamclaytonbigsby posted the Laredo photo to r/photoshopbattles, treating it as fresh remix material5. Two parody Twitter accounts, @trumphat and @DonaldTrumphat, launched on July 23 and 24, 2015 respectively, with @trumphat's debut post reading 'hello, from texas. #notmexico #trumphat'2. The Los Angeles Times noted that between those two hat accounts and the older @TrumpsHair, Trump had three parody Twitter accounts dedicated to features from the neck up2.

How to Use This Meme

Two dominant formats do most of the work. First, swap words in the slogan itself while keeping the 'Make ___ ___ Again' cadence, then either tweet it, chant it, or embroider it on a cap. Second, for photoshop versions, common convention is to keep the red hat, white embroidery, and stiff front panel untouched while replacing only the text, since the visual container is what makes the reference land2. Political riffs typically pair the swap with a specific target (Mike Pence's LGBTQ record, Trump's Russia ties, a state or sports team) rather than swapping words at random6.

Cultural Impact

The 'Make ___ Great Again' template pushed well beyond Trump's base. Actor Alec Baldwin posted an Instagram photo on January 6, 2017 wearing a red MAGA hat with the slogan translated into Russian to troll then-president-elect Trump over his alleged Russia ties, and around the same window US Ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz was photographed with a 'MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN' cap that drew backlash because Somalia had been named in Trump's initial travel-ban executive order5.

The 'Make America Gay Again' riff drew the widest coverage of the derivatives. Neighbors of the Aspen, Colorado home where Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Sue were staying hung a rainbow banner with that slogan on a stone pillar at the shared driveway in late December 2017, timed to protest Pence's record on LGBTQ policy6. A Pitkin County Sheriff's deputy told The Aspen Times 'you couldn't miss it' and said the family who hung the sign came out to feed the deputies and Secret Service agents chili and corn muffins6. Mashable framed the banner as a clear message to Pence over his openly held anti-LGBTQ beliefs, and the Aspen Times' own tweet of the sign drew more than 6,500 retweets and 16,000 likes in under five days7.

Frequently Asked Questions