--- title: Trump Drops Big Dollars on Swag, Hats for Campaign description: Donald Trump spent around $450,000 on hats alone, a Politico analysis finds canonical: https://time.com/4202537/donald-trump-campaign-hats/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-01T17:21:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T19:22:56.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Drops Big Dollars on Swag, Hats for Campaign og:description: Donald Trump spent around $450,000 on hats alone, a Politico analysis finds og:url: https://time.com/4202537/donald-trump-campaign-hats/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa3e5dbaf1a2c738/69887b953c1639cf6945bd0a/505739100.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaign Rally og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Drops Big Dollars on Swag, Hats for Campaign twitter:description: Donald Trump spent around $450,000 on hats alone, a Politico analysis finds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa3e5dbaf1a2c738/69887b953c1639cf6945bd0a/505739100.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Spent Almost Half a Million Dollars on Hats > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:22 PM UTCPublished: Feb 1, 2016 5:21 PM UTC  Hats promoting Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, are displayed for sale outside a campaign rally at the Hansen Agricultural Student Learning Center at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Hats promoting Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, are displayed for sale outside a campaign rally at the Hansen Agricultural Student Learning Center at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:22 PM UTCPublished: Feb 1, 2016 5:21 PM UTC **Correction appended, Feb. 1, 2016** Republican frontrunner Donald Trump lent his campaign a whopping [$10.8 million to bid for the presidency](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-campaign-finance-218509#ixzz3yvpvDgPm) in the last three months of 2015, according to recent campaign finance filings — and a good chunk it has gone towards Trump-branded swag. An analysis of the findings by [_Politico_](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-campaign-finance-218509#ixzz3yvpvDgPm) found that about $450,000 of the $940,000 the Trump campaign has spent on yard signs, stickers, and paraphernalia has gone toward hats. Most likely the ever-popular caps emblazoned with the mogul’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” The nearly half million dollars he dropped on caps is almost as much as the candidate spent on getting his name on the ballot in primary states, according to the filings. Trump’s camp has also spent nearly $800,000 to host the massive rallies that have become a hallmark of the businessman’s campaign . The businessman’s personal wealth—and the attention he’s derived from his celebrity and bombastic statements—has helped him keep his campaign’s spending and fundraising on the lower end of the spectrum within the swollen Republican field. His personal spending total has reached nearly $13 million. An analysis of campaign spending by the [Center for Responsive Politics](http://time.com/4202063/campaign-finance-super-pacs-2015/) found that SuperPACs are [fueling the 2016 campaign](http://time.com/4202063/campaign-finance-super-pacs-2015/), with $100 million having already been contributed by high-roller donors. But while a SuperPAC was recently launched to support the Donald, for now Trump seems to be his own source of big dollars. **Correction**: The original version of this story misstated which group conducted the analysis of campaign spending. It was the Center for Responsive Politics. [\[_Politico_](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-campaign-finance-218509#ixzz3yvpvDgPm)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4202537/donald-trump-campaign-hats/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4202537/donald-trump-campaign-hats/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Spent Almost Half a Million Dollars on Hats","datePublished":"2016-02-01T17:21:34.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T19:22:56.000Z","description":"The Republican presidential front-runner lent his campaign over $10 million","url":"https://time.com/4202537/donald-trump-campaign-hats/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa3e5dbaf1a2c738/69887b953c1639cf6945bd0a/505739100.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa3e5dbaf1a2c738/69887b953c1639cf6945bd0a/505739100.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaign Rally","caption":"Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaign Rally","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4202537/donald-trump-campaign-hats/","name":"Donald Trump Spent Almost Half a Million Dollars on Hats"}}]}] ```