'He has peaked': MAGA gear goes into hiding as Trump stores shutter ahead of midterms

President Donald Trump supporters are showing less enthusiasm for wearing their MAGA gear out in public, according to retailers, and the shops that built a business on the president’s brand are rushing to sell off inventory before demand dries up.

At least four Trump merchandise stores have closed this year, including the MAGA Mall, a large online retailer and wholesaler, whose owners say sales are down 30 percent compared with a presidential election year when Trump is on the ballot, reported NPR.

Bill Hays, 80, closed his Trump super store outside Knoxville, Tennessee, in September, and he told the network that customers had started asking for bags instead of wearing their new gear out the door.

“People were not wearing their colors, so to speak, like they did before the (2024) election,” Hays said.

Back when the store opened in April 2024, Hays said, the line once stretched to 80 people out the door, and sales hit $200,000 a month. By the time it closed, monthly sales were down to $20,000.

Hays blamed the 80-year-old president's unpopular policies, including DOGE’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, and observed that his supporters had grown complacent.

“After the inauguration, I think a lot of people felt that their job was done,” Hays said. “They didn’t have to promote MAGA or Trump.”

Trump’s falling approval rating has made things worse. His average approval dropped from 50 percent when he took office to 44 percent by the time a store in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, closed. It had fallen another five points by the time Hays shut down.

The retailers still open are cutting prices. In Myrtle Beach, Rick Kligman, 69, runs two stores and is packing $40 worth of older merchandise into $9.99 grab bags. He’s worried that a Democratic sweep in the midterms could drive away casual buyers.

“I don’t want to be sitting holding thousands and thousands of dollars of Trump merchandise and absolutely no possibility of selling it,” Kligman said.

At the Bensalem store’s closing sale, “Trump Won” caps sold for $9.99 and Trump pool floats for $19.99. Wes Alker, a superfan and retired auto mechanic who came in for the deals, didn’t sugarcoat it.

“He’s no longer a viable business model for entrepreneurs because he has peaked,” Alker said.

With Trump in his final term, sellers are moving toward general patriotic items such as “We the People” hats.

Ron Solomon, president of the MAGA Mall, estimates about 20 Trump-focused stores are still open, but he said that unless one of the president's family members takes up the mantle, the business model “will fade away.”