Will MAGA Become MASA? (There’s Already A Hat On Sale)

(Note to readers: When I wrote and published this I made a mistake, including in the title that took multiple edits to correct. I had House Speaker Mike “Moses” Johnson in my head and kept using MOSA instead of MASA.  Why that was stuck there is the idea in my head before I started writing and I simply blew it. My apologies for confusing everyone. I hope you’ll forgive me, and read the edited article which includes something I’d edited out of the original. Reading comments I realized I should have left it in)

MAGA? (Make America Great Again)  MASA? (Make America Strong Again?) I seem to recall some, although as far as I know not Trump trying to float Make America Moral Again. But be real – there’s no way in hell Trump would go for his movement under the brand of MAMA! Still, he has used the words Make American Strong Again on the stump so it’s gotten me to wondering about things. Weird seems to be the word these days when it comes to the bizarreness of Trump/MAGA World. However, while at first glance this might seem weird it’s actually being considered it’s just old fashioned grift. A new way to infuse Trump with much needed cash.

Among the things we know about Trump is he likes to pretend he’s generous by throwing out cheap stuff to average folks. Like rolls of paper towels to hurricane victims, or his stupid MAGA hats sometimes. (The cheapest Chinese made ones – with the “made in” labels cut out) We also know he loves to grift, to make money selling his MAGA hats and other Trump items.  I can’t help but wonder if the MAGA goobers have bought so many MAGA hats sales petered out. So to pump up the grift Trump’s trying out a new slogan to get them all buying the “newer, more bigly awesome” version of MAGA hats and other gear. A new slogan is being floated. Make American Strong Again. MASA. Yes, there are already MASA hats for sale online. (No, I won’t provide link)

MASA doesn’t quite have the same hard-edged ring to it as MAGA, but if Trump can get it to catch on he’ll make a lot of his base smile. Let’s be real. The Confederacy LOST the Civil War but there are people everywhere, not just the South that still refuse to accept that fact. MASA would be pronounced just like a term that didn’t die with slavery being outlawed by Constitutional fiat. “Massa”, thanks to those confederates that refuses to accept defeat and went on to produce a culture of repression backed up with violence has stayed with us.

The point however, at least for Trump is that shifting from MAGA would, if he can get a new slogan launched open up a whole new revenue stream from a group of small donors who show signs of feeling like they’ve kicked in enough.

I don’t know if it would work. MAGA is comfort food, like we remember from our grandmother’s kitchen. MASA seems more like cooking on a hot plate from some college guy in his dorm room. Or from the blatant racism that has flowered since Trump sharted his way down his fake gold escalator to launch his campaign. It’s always been there in this country but Trump gave cover for an awful lot of people, including and especially a huge chunk of his “base” to let their racist freak flags fly.

One of Trump’s few skills is marketing himself and getting people to spend money he says they should spend money on. It would as I’ve said open up a new round of sales of crap from hats to t-shirts to cofveve… er, coffee mugs. IF Trump can get MASA to catch on. I’m not sure how  hard he’s trying. HIs best chance for a rollout of a rebranding from MAGA to MASA was the recent convention.  That’s over. If he thought he’d have plenty of time to play it up between then and the DNC the last week dumped an ocean of cold water on any such plans. Trump can barely force his way into the news these days, much less push a rebranding of MAGA into MASA.  If he actually was going to give this a shot it’s one more thing for him to be angry about.

Still, he might give it a try. Having heard a brief mention of Trump’s floating the phrase Make America Strong Again he really might want a rebrand. Maybe he realizes MAGA doesn’t go over well with Independents and those suburban GOP soccer moms. Maybe it’s finally hit him that his MAGA goobers aren’t enough, and he will need some help from groups of voters he’d dismissed after all.  Is Trump that desperate? There are signs that he is. He’s trying to distance himself from GOP orthodoxy on outlawing abortion and further eliminating reproductive rights. He’s trying to create distance between himself and Project 2025.  MAGA is toxic to more than just Democrats so trying to placate/fool them with a new name, a new brand might Trump hopes do the trick.

I have no idea how serious Trump might be about this. It might be just another hairbrained idea or a money-making scheme Trump has actual hopes for. I hope he gives it a real try. However, Trump might have concerns about a backlash if people start hitting him and his campaign with stuff like ‘MASA? Are you sure you don’t mean Massa?’ Trump’s base wouldn’t care of course. Hell, they’d groove on it! However, there are actual non-MAGA Republicans out there who would be horrified just like they were back in 2016. And since. Blowing off all the decades of dog-whistle politicking made them nervous. MASA might make Trump money, but it could also ignite a backlash that will wipe out the GOP this fall. Basically, like J.D. Vance it doesn’t get them a single vote they didn’t already have locked up. It will however COST them votes with Independents and (I get tired of this term) those suburban soccer moms they are desperate to bring back into the fold.

Once again though I say I hope Trump goes for it. I really do. Also, I’m not kidding when I say if you do a search you can already buy MASA hats online.  Keep an eye out for whether they appear on Trumpty-Dumpty’s website. Or if he starts tossing MASA hats to the crowd at events. (Or both) That would be an indication he’s really going to try something like this. Even if it makes him only a small amount of money I don’t mind. Why? The confusion with his base will be entertaining as hell, especially if it doesn’t take hold with MAGAs with a roomful of MAGA branded crap.  We can have some fun too.  I found myself playing rebranding games:

MAGA? MASA? Combining the two?  Such as Make America Strong And Great Again – MASAGA. Or, what about Make America Great And Strong Again – MAGASA? What if we toss the Morals (MAMA) into the mix?  MAMASAGA?  I could go on (and so can you) but what the hell. I always say I take my entertainment where I can find it.  Hell, indulges Moses Mikey and create an acronym that evokes Moses of the Bible. The MOSA I used in the original version of this was stuck in my head while writing which led to my idiocy in using it so many times instead of MASA. Evangelicals might clamor for MACO (Make America Christian Only) – the possibilities are endless.  In fact, maybe this is a way we can go on offense. Offering up variations on MAGA Trump’s base would also like and slamming them.

Weird seems to be the best description of Trump and the GOP now and this sure seems to fit right in with all that.  We might as well have some fun with it, or knock some bodies down. Or both.  And again, my apologies for blowing it with the acronym in the original version of this.