WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 Welcome back. We are we're so glad you could 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.419 join us for another deep dive today. Absolutely. 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:07.440 Thanks for being here. So today we are looking 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:09.679 at something that whether you actively follow 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:11.779 politics or you just casually scroll through 00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:13.960 social media, you absolutely encounter. Oh, without 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:15.919 a doubt. We're talking about the history, the 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.480 hidden mechanics and the massive global impact 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.500 of the political slogan, Make America Great Again, 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:25.399 or as it's universally known, MGA. Right. And. 00:00:25.850 --> 00:00:28.149 To guide this exploration, we're pulling from 00:00:28.149 --> 00:00:31.250 a heavily cited Wikipedia article that tracks 00:00:31.250 --> 00:00:34.250 the slogan's entire life cycle. It covers the 00:00:34.250 --> 00:00:36.969 historical origins, the fierce controversies, 00:00:36.969 --> 00:00:40.399 and all the, uh... the endless cultural permutations 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:43.179 that spawned right up through early 2026. And 00:00:43.179 --> 00:00:45.079 our mission for you today is to dissect exactly 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:48.259 how four very simple words evolved from a fairly 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:51.759 standard political catchphrase into a multi -billion 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:54.640 dollar global pop culture phenomenon. Exactly. 00:00:54.899 --> 00:00:56.740 We want to help you understand the actual mechanics 00:00:56.740 --> 00:00:59.539 of viral language. Like, how does a slogan become 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:01.899 a polarizing symbol that transcends borders? 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:04.760 Right. And look, we know this is a highly charged 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:07.980 topic. We are talking about incredibly polarizing... 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:10.540 politics from both the left and the right. But 00:01:10.540 --> 00:01:14.099 for the next 15 minutes or so, we aren't taking 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:16.920 sides. I want to be super clear about that. We 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.760 are stepping back to act purely as historians 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:23.319 and sociologists. Yeah, we are completely impartial 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:25.340 here. We're just looking at the mechanics of 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:27.799 this phenomenon and reporting the varying perspectives 00:01:27.799 --> 00:01:30.719 exactly as the data presents them. Because we're 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:32.659 looking at this through the lens of history and 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:36.400 language. The goal is understanding how a phrase 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.219 takes on a life of its own, not arguing for one 00:01:39.219 --> 00:01:41.040 side of the aisle or the other. Right. Exactly. 00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:43.079 OK, let's unpack this. Let's start with a trivia 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.500 question for you. If I asked you to guess who 00:01:45.500 --> 00:01:48.040 first used the phrase make America great again 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:50.680 in a presidential campaign. Your instinct is 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.659 probably Donald Trump in 2016. Right. But the 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:56.239 phrase actually has a much older political pedigree. 00:01:56.379 --> 00:01:59.260 It does. To find the origin, you have to rewind 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:02.099 the clock back to the 1980 presidential campaign. 00:02:02.650 --> 00:02:05.810 Ronald Reagan famously used the phrase, let's 00:02:05.810 --> 00:02:08.389 make America great again, to rally voters during 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:11.710 his run. Because at the time, the U .S. was choked 00:02:11.710 --> 00:02:15.009 by stagflation. Yes, and Reagan used that intense 00:02:15.009 --> 00:02:18.289 economic distress as a springboard. During his 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:20.469 acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican National 00:02:20.469 --> 00:02:23.210 Convention, he literally spoke to the people 00:02:23.210 --> 00:02:25.889 who had abandoned hope, promising to restore 00:02:25.889 --> 00:02:29.069 that hope and welcome them into a great national 00:02:29.069 --> 00:02:32.319 crusade. he deployed those specific words to 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:35.340 stir a renewed sense of patriotism among a highly 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:38.340 anxious electorate exactly But then fast forward 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:41.159 to 1992 and the phrase pops up across the aisle. 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:44.360 Bill Clinton used it in speeches during his 1992 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:47.080 presidential campaign. He did. He even pushed 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.340 the phrase in a radio commercial that aired for 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:52.199 his wife, Hillary Clinton, during her 2008 presidential 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.580 primary run. Right. And what's fascinating here 00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:56.120 is... What's fascinating here is how the meaning 00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:58.439 of identical words shifts entirely depending 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:00.919 on the era, the political climate, and the speaker. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.180 Yeah, because later during the 2016 campaign 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:05.120 when Hillary Clinton was running against Donald 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.740 Trump, Bill Clinton actually... criticized Trump's 00:03:07.740 --> 00:03:11.099 use of the slogan. Right. He suggested that Trump's 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.840 version of Make America Great Again was essentially 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.699 a coded message to white Southerners promising 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:19.300 to move them back up the social totem pole at 00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:21.280 the expense of others. Which is wild because 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:23.520 he made that critique despite having utilized 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:26.520 the exact same phrasing herself decades earlier 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:30.020 to project economic optimism. Right. I'm curious 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:32.849 about the timeline then. If Reagan used it in 00:03:32.849 --> 00:03:36.509 1980 and Clinton in 92, how did Trump manage 00:03:36.509 --> 00:03:39.550 to completely co -opt it so effectively? Did 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:41.469 he just start printing it on posters one day? 00:03:41.689 --> 00:03:43.830 Well, he was actually testing the waters much 00:03:43.830 --> 00:03:46.409 earlier than most people realize. Trump published 00:03:46.409 --> 00:03:49.530 a book in 2011 with the subtitle Making America 00:03:49.530 --> 00:03:51.919 Number One Again. Oh, I didn't realize it was 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:53.719 that early. Yeah. And then he changed it in a 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.560 2015 reissue to make America great again. So 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:58.919 he was experimenting with the framing long before 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:01.000 he came down the golden escalator. Right. And 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.340 by his own account, Trump first considered the 00:04:03.340 --> 00:04:06.060 slogan, we will make America great. But he ended 00:04:06.060 --> 00:04:08.340 up scrapping it because he felt it implied that 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.539 America was never great to begin with. He wanted 00:04:10.539 --> 00:04:13.270 to capture a sense of restoration. a return to 00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:16.029 a specific pinnacle. So he settled on Make America 00:04:16.029 --> 00:04:19.149 Great Again and formally began using it on November 00:04:19.149 --> 00:04:22.829 7, 2012. Which is literally the day after Barack 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:25.170 Obama won his reelection against Mitt Romney. 00:04:25.310 --> 00:04:28.029 Exactly. Trump later claimed he was unaware of 00:04:28.029 --> 00:04:31.389 Reagan's 1980 use until 2015, but he famously 00:04:31.389 --> 00:04:33.250 noted that Reagan didn't bother to trademark 00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:35.730 it. Right, because Trump's background as a businessman 00:04:35.730 --> 00:04:38.410 caused him to approach a political cash phrase 00:04:38.410 --> 00:04:42.259 like a piece of intellectual property. A few 00:04:42.259 --> 00:04:45.319 days after Obama's 2012 reelection, Trump signed 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:47.459 an application with the U .S. Patent and Trademark 00:04:47.459 --> 00:04:50.540 Office to get exclusive rights to use the slogan 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:52.779 for political purposes. And he got it registered 00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:56.000 as a service mark in 2015 once his campaign officially 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.120 kicked off. But he had a pretty hilarious blind 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.120 spot when he did that, though. Oh, right. The 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.899 Bobby Bones thing. Yes. He trademarked it for 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:05.000 political action, but he didn't trademark the 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:08.069 phrase in commerce. That massive oversight opened 00:05:08.069 --> 00:05:10.269 the door for a radio personality named Bobby 00:05:10.269 --> 00:05:13.930 Bones. In August 2015, Bones realized the commerce 00:05:13.930 --> 00:05:16.250 trademark was still completely available. Which 00:05:16.250 --> 00:05:19.139 is just incredible. So he successfully filed 00:05:19.139 --> 00:05:21.699 a trademark for the phrase's use in commerce, 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:24.759 essentially locking the Trump campaign out of 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:27.379 selling their own merchandise legally. And then 00:05:27.379 --> 00:05:30.300 Bones immediately tweeted at Trump, offering 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:32.879 to give the slogan back, but only in exchange 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:37.199 for a $100 ,000 donation to St. Jude Children's 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:39.639 Research Hospital. It was a brilliant negotiation 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:43.209 tactic playing out in public. Truly. By October 00:05:43.209 --> 00:05:46.370 of that year, Bones tweeted an image of a check 00:05:46.370 --> 00:05:49.290 from the Trump Organization. The exact amount 00:05:49.290 --> 00:05:51.889 was undisclosed, but Bones announced that Trump 00:05:51.889 --> 00:05:53.930 could have his slogan back. The Trump campaign 00:05:53.930 --> 00:05:56.269 essentially had to ransom their own catchphrase 00:05:56.269 --> 00:05:58.910 to start selling merchandise. But once that commerce 00:05:58.910 --> 00:06:02.209 trademark was secured, the campaign unleashed 00:06:02.209 --> 00:06:04.509 what is arguably the most recognizable piece 00:06:04.509 --> 00:06:07.350 of political merchandise in modern history, the 00:06:07.350 --> 00:06:10.240 red May G .A. hat. Right, the hat. The strategic 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:14.000 genius of that $25 hat is staggering when you 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.160 look at the economics of a modern political campaign. 00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:19.480 During the 2016 run, Trump's team actually spent 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:21.839 more money on manufacturing those hats than they 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:24.420 spent on polling, political consultants, or even 00:06:24.420 --> 00:06:27.180 television commercials. That's just wild to think 00:06:27.180 --> 00:06:29.319 about. The return on investment was astronomical. 00:06:29.959 --> 00:06:32.519 Trump himself estimated that counterfeit versions 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.399 outnumbered the real ones 10 to 1. But the origin 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:37.540 of the hat didn't matter. Because every single 00:06:37.540 --> 00:06:39.779 time somebody put one on their head, it was a 00:06:39.779 --> 00:06:42.610 free walking advertisement. Exactly. It also 00:06:42.610 --> 00:06:45.389 acted as a powerful piece of uniform apparel. 00:06:45.649 --> 00:06:48.069 Wearing it created an immediate visual marker 00:06:48.069 --> 00:06:50.230 of an in -group. You could walk down the street 00:06:50.230 --> 00:06:52.589 and instantly identify a political ally without 00:06:52.589 --> 00:06:55.470 saying a word. Because uniforms create cohesion. 00:06:55.529 --> 00:06:58.050 The white -on -red design became an incredibly 00:06:58.050 --> 00:07:01.310 successful symbol of unity for his base, transforming 00:07:01.310 --> 00:07:03.529 a political preference into a highly visible 00:07:03.529 --> 00:07:06.279 physical identity. Here's where it gets really 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:08.279 interesting, especially if you look at the data 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:10.779 side of things. Donald Trump took this physical 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:13.699 identity and seamlessly weaponized the slogan 00:07:13.699 --> 00:07:16.339 on social media, primarily Twitter. Yeah. In 00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:19.879 the first half of 2017 alone, he posted the slogan 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:23.839 33 times. A Bloomberg News analysis looked at 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:26.100 the raw numbers and found that simply adding 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:29.980 the phrase or the hashtag MGA to a tweet added 00:07:29.980 --> 00:07:33.199 roughly 51 ,000 to the post's retweet and favorite 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:36.680 count. That's a massive bump. Right. For context, 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:40.860 his average tweet attracted about 107 ,000 interactions, 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:44.180 meaning the slogan alone was driving nearly a 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:47.160 50 percent boost in engagement. And when critics 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:49.220 told him his aggressive use of the slogan on 00:07:49.220 --> 00:07:52.379 social media wasn't presidential, he tweeted 00:07:52.379 --> 00:07:55.259 back that it was, quote, modern day presidential. 00:07:55.850 --> 00:07:58.050 He fundamentally understood the viral nature 00:07:58.050 --> 00:08:00.529 of the phrase and how algorithms reward simple, 00:08:00.689 --> 00:08:03.769 repetitive, highly charged messaging. But a symbol 00:08:03.769 --> 00:08:06.089 with that much cultural gravity rarely unites 00:08:06.089 --> 00:08:08.629 everyone. The sheer visibility of the phrase, 00:08:08.829 --> 00:08:11.790 and specifically the red hat, created a massive 00:08:11.790 --> 00:08:14.550 cultural fracture. It really did. For millions 00:08:14.550 --> 00:08:17.209 of Americans, the slogan became deeply polarizing. 00:08:17.389 --> 00:08:19.329 To understand the full scope of this phenomenon, 00:08:19.589 --> 00:08:21.470 we have to look at the two distinct opposing 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:23.970 viewpoints presented in the data. Starting with 00:08:23.970 --> 00:08:26.370 the critical view. Scholars like Sarah Churchwell 00:08:26.370 --> 00:08:28.750 and journalists like Marissa Melton argue that 00:08:28.750 --> 00:08:31.189 the phrase acts as a dog whistle. They describe 00:08:31.189 --> 00:08:34.029 it as romanticizing a past where certain groups, 00:08:34.110 --> 00:08:36.610 primarily white men, held unquestioned supremacy 00:08:36.610 --> 00:08:39.779 while systemically excluding others. They argue 00:08:39.779 --> 00:08:43.259 the nostalgia the phrase invokes is highly selective. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:47.200 Yes. The actor Bryan Cranston voiced this perspective 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.019 very directly during an interview. He asked the 00:08:50.019 --> 00:08:52.000 public to consider when America was ever great 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.320 for African -Americans. Right. His argument was 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:56.320 that taking the country back to an earlier time 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.639 inherently means returning to an era of overt 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:02.159 exclusion and fewer civil rights for minorities. 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:05.159 And this perspective is bolstered by data from 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:08.850 a 2018 study. Researchers used text mining and 00:09:08.850 --> 00:09:11.549 semantic network analytics on Twitter and found 00:09:11.549 --> 00:09:14.129 that the ManGA hashtag was heavily utilized by 00:09:14.129 --> 00:09:16.769 white supremacist users, acting as a digital 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:19.289 organizing space for far -right extremists globally. 00:09:19.629 --> 00:09:22.009 Which is why, because of these specific associations 00:09:22.009 --> 00:09:24.250 and the way the hat was adopted by certain fringe 00:09:24.250 --> 00:09:26.809 groups, some prominent critics have gone so far 00:09:26.809 --> 00:09:29.190 as to compare wearing the ManGA hat to flying 00:09:29.190 --> 00:09:31.519 the Confederate flag. On the other hand, proponents 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:34.100 of the slogan flatly and vehemently reject that 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.580 characterization. To the millions of people who 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:38.919 bought the hats and voted for the campaign, the 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:42.460 slogan is an expression of pure patriotism, American 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:45.460 exceptionalism and optimism about the country's 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:48.159 economic future. They see it as a unifying call 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:51.039 to restore American strength, completely devoid 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:54.379 of any racial animus. To them, the greatness 00:09:54.379 --> 00:09:57.740 refers to manufacturing dominance, strong borders 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:00.789 and a booming middle class. not social regression. 00:10:01.129 --> 00:10:04.129 And the defense of the hat as a legitimate, non 00:10:04.129 --> 00:10:06.429 -hateful expression of political belief even 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:09.309 made its way to the federal courts. It did. In 00:10:09.309 --> 00:10:12.009 late 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 00:10:12.009 --> 00:10:15.169 ruled that wearing a MAGA hat is considered protected 00:10:15.169 --> 00:10:17.830 speech under the First Amendment. This was after 00:10:17.830 --> 00:10:20.049 a former teacher war went to school and faced 00:10:20.049 --> 00:10:22.230 verbal harassment and retaliation from school 00:10:22.230 --> 00:10:24.330 employees. Right. The court affirmed that wearing 00:10:24.330 --> 00:10:26.549 the hat is a protected exercise of political 00:10:26.549 --> 00:10:29.070 belief shielded from government retaliation. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:32.240 So it's legally protected political speech. Yes. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:34.740 This raises an important question for you to 00:10:34.740 --> 00:10:37.600 consider. How can a single piece of cotton and 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.240 thread, a mass -produced red baseball cap, simultaneously 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:44.639 mean pure optimism and patriotism to one person 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.639 and overt exclusion and racism to another? It 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:50.860 perfectly illustrates the immense power of subjective 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.759 interpretation. Exactly. The hat itself has no 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:56.230 inherent power. It only holds the meaning that 00:10:56.230 --> 00:10:58.129 the viewer projects onto it. And because it became 00:10:58.129 --> 00:11:01.269 such a massive cultural lightning rod the slogan 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:04.509 inevitably morphed. It took on a life of its 00:11:04.509 --> 00:11:07.370 own, spawning endless iterations, parodies and 00:11:07.370 --> 00:11:09.850 adaptations. Even Trump himself played with the 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:11.929 formula over the years as circumstances changed. 00:11:12.169 --> 00:11:14.669 Right. In 2020, as the incumbent, his campaign 00:11:14.669 --> 00:11:17.629 pushed to keep America great. And when he teamed 00:11:17.629 --> 00:11:20.690 up with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in late 2024, they 00:11:20.690 --> 00:11:23.149 merged brands to promise to make America healthy 00:11:23.149 --> 00:11:25.370 again. He even floated the phrase make America 00:11:25.370 --> 00:11:28.009 great and glorious again, which gave us the rather 00:11:28.009 --> 00:11:31.850 clunky acronym MAGAGA. MAGAGA. Yeah. The Internet 00:11:31.850 --> 00:11:33.830 heavily. mock that one. But his political rivals 00:11:33.830 --> 00:11:35.970 quickly recognized the power of the grammatical 00:11:35.970 --> 00:11:39.250 format, too. They sure did. During the 2020 Democratic 00:11:39.250 --> 00:11:41.970 primaries, Andrew Yang used the slogan, Make 00:11:41.970 --> 00:11:44.590 America Think Harder, which cleverly spelled 00:11:44.590 --> 00:11:47.960 out M. And when Ron DeSantis ran in the 2024 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:51.320 Republican primary, his pitch was make America 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.899 Florida, attempting to nationalize his state 00:11:53.899 --> 00:11:56.700 level policies. Even on the left, the term Blue 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:59.759 Magie emerged. Progressive commentators used 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.519 it to criticize what they perceived as a blind, 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.700 cult -like devotion to Joe Biden among establishment 00:12:05.700 --> 00:12:08.080 Democrats. They were accusing them of mirroring 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:11.080 the unquestioning loyalty of Trump's base. But 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:13.120 the pop culture footprint is where you see how 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.039 truly inescapable those four words became. Comedian 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:18.740 John Oliver did a massive segment on HBO urging 00:12:18.740 --> 00:12:22.009 viewers to make Donald Drumpf Thoth. Again, referencing 00:12:22.009 --> 00:12:24.230 the Trump family's ancestral name. That single 00:12:24.230 --> 00:12:27.129 segment broke HBO records, pulling in 85 million 00:12:27.129 --> 00:12:29.570 views. Wow. The structure of the phrase just 00:12:29.570 --> 00:12:32.009 became a universal mad lib for writers and marketers. 00:12:32.529 --> 00:12:34.970 Corporate brands co -opted the controversy for 00:12:34.970 --> 00:12:37.269 engagement. Oh, yeah. The 90s nostalgia snack 00:12:37.269 --> 00:12:39.769 Dunkaroos launched a Make America Dunk Again 00:12:39.769 --> 00:12:43.309 campaign. The B -movie franchise Sharknado used 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:47.289 the tagline Make America Bait again for its fifth 00:12:47.289 --> 00:12:49.659 installment. In television, the Amazon series 00:12:49.659 --> 00:12:52.980 The Boys had its villain, Homelander, push the 00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:56.000 slogan Make America Super Again as he launched 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.360 a violent insurrection. Even the video game industry 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:01.679 got involved. Wolfenstein II, a game about fighting 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:04.759 an alternate history Nazi regime, used the tagline 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:08.419 Make America Nazi Free. again in its marketing, 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:10.840 which sparked its own separate internet controversy. 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:14.559 And Snoop Dogg released an EP titled Make America 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:16.799 Crip Again. You really couldn't get away from 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:18.799 it. Whether you were eating grocery store snacks, 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:21.139 watching premium cable, playing a first -person 00:13:21.139 --> 00:13:23.360 shooter game, or listening to hip -hop, You could 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:25.519 not escape the shadow of that slogan. It achieved 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:28.220 total cultural saturation in the United States. 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:30.600 And as we look at the timeline moving through 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:34.919 2025 and early 2026, the MadGA template successfully 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:37.340 exported itself. It went completely global. It 00:13:37.340 --> 00:13:39.940 really became the ultimate go -to branding for 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:42.700 global populism and nationalism. Right. During 00:13:42.700 --> 00:13:45.659 Argentina's 2023 presidential election, Javier 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:48.840 Magle used Make Argentina Great Again. After 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:51.950 Magle won, Trump publicly congratulated him, 00:13:52.049 --> 00:13:55.070 specifically calling him a May -GA person. In 00:13:55.070 --> 00:13:58.049 February 2025, Indian Prime Minister Narendra 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:00.070 Modi actually pitched a localized derivative 00:14:00.070 --> 00:14:03.110 to Trump during a bilateral meeting. Modi called 00:14:03.110 --> 00:14:06.409 it MIGA, Make India Great Again. He told the 00:14:06.409 --> 00:14:08.789 press that when May -GA and MIGA work together. 00:14:09.289 --> 00:14:11.549 It creates a mega partnership. Which is pretty 00:14:11.549 --> 00:14:13.289 clever. But those are the friendly diplomatic 00:14:13.289 --> 00:14:16.450 adaptations. The slogan also became the flashpoint 00:14:16.450 --> 00:14:18.669 for incredibly heated international conflicts. 00:14:19.009 --> 00:14:22.289 Like the 2025 Brazil cap war. Yes, the cap war. 00:14:22.610 --> 00:14:25.610 After Trump hiked tariffs on Brazil, which some 00:14:25.610 --> 00:14:27.730 financial outlets described as the greatest economic 00:14:27.730 --> 00:14:30.190 interference since the Cold War, the Brazilian 00:14:30.190 --> 00:14:32.070 government didn't just fight back with policy. 00:14:32.250 --> 00:14:34.309 They fought back with a deliberate wardrobe change. 00:14:34.710 --> 00:14:37.409 President Lula da Silva and all 38 of his government 00:14:37.409 --> 00:14:40.120 ministers posed. for official photos wearing 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:43.340 bright blue caps that read, Brazil belongs to 00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:46.200 Brazilians. It was a direct, highly orchestrated 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:49.720 visual counterattack to the red Manor hats, using 00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:52.019 Trump's own visual language against him on the 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:55.679 world stage. And then in early 2026, the localized 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:59.139 resistance to the slogan reached absurd new heights 00:14:59.139 --> 00:15:01.720 during the massive protests in Greenland. Trump 00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:04.039 had apparently revived his long, dormant push 00:15:04.039 --> 00:15:06.500 for the United States to purchase or annex the 00:15:06.500 --> 00:15:09.399 territory. In response, protesters in Greenland 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:11.860 took to the streets wearing their own modified 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:14.139 hats to catch the attention. of the American 00:15:14.139 --> 00:15:17.679 media. Their hats read, Make America Go Away. 00:15:18.009 --> 00:15:20.710 Make America go away. You literally can't write 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:23.590 this stuff. It is amazing how quickly a localized 00:15:23.590 --> 00:15:26.190 protest group knew exactly which buttons to push 00:15:26.190 --> 00:15:28.309 to get international coverage. If we connect 00:15:28.309 --> 00:15:30.690 this to the bigger picture, it demonstrates how 00:15:30.690 --> 00:15:33.370 a localized American phrase became a universal 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:36.009 template for asserting national identity, sometimes 00:15:36.009 --> 00:15:38.669 in incredibly bizarre contexts. Definitely. In 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.409 May 2025, the Syrian president, Ahmed al -Shara, 00:15:41.549 --> 00:15:44.370 used the exact phrasing, stating, We must make 00:15:44.370 --> 00:15:46.850 Syria great again during a high -profile interview. 00:15:47.309 --> 00:15:49.289 about rebuilding his country. And Trump even 00:15:49.289 --> 00:15:52.850 applied it to Venezuela. He did. In early 2026, 00:15:53.009 --> 00:15:55.830 after a truly cinematic sequence of events where 00:15:55.830 --> 00:15:58.990 the Trump administration literally captured Venezuelan 00:15:58.990 --> 00:16:02.009 President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, taking 00:16:02.009 --> 00:16:04.029 them into federal custody in New York. Trump 00:16:04.029 --> 00:16:07.090 spoke about the newly installed acting Venezuelan 00:16:07.090 --> 00:16:09.549 president. He assured the press she was willing 00:16:09.549 --> 00:16:11.970 to do what was necessary to make Venezuela great 00:16:11.970 --> 00:16:14.450 again. It was genuinely dizzying to track the 00:16:14.450 --> 00:16:16.990 journey of this phrase. It really is. We started 00:16:16.990 --> 00:16:19.429 in a 1980 convention hall with Ronald Reagan 00:16:19.429 --> 00:16:21.330 trying to lift the country out of stagflation. 00:16:21.629 --> 00:16:24.230 Then the phrase is resurrected by Donald Trump 00:16:24.230 --> 00:16:27.269 in 2012, turned into a billion dollar cultural 00:16:27.269 --> 00:16:30.909 phenomenon via a $25 red baseball cap. Sparks 00:16:30.909 --> 00:16:32.929 one of the fiercest debates over political speech. 00:16:33.129 --> 00:16:35.129 inclusion, and race in modern American history. 00:16:35.269 --> 00:16:37.950 And finally, it evolves into a global Mad Libs 00:16:37.950 --> 00:16:40.549 template utilized by everyone from prime ministers 00:16:40.549 --> 00:16:43.409 in India to protesters in Greenland. Incredible 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:45.269 journey. So what does this all mean for you? 00:16:45.330 --> 00:16:47.269 Whether you work in marketing, whether you are 00:16:47.269 --> 00:16:49.629 obsessed with political science, or whether you 00:16:49.629 --> 00:16:52.570 are simply an everyday consumer of media, this 00:16:52.570 --> 00:16:56.580 deep dive proves one undeniable fact. Words are 00:16:56.580 --> 00:16:59.399 never just words. Right. A slogan is just a vessel. 00:16:59.580 --> 00:17:02.419 Exactly. It carries whatever historical, emotional, 00:17:02.659 --> 00:17:04.640 and cultural weight we choose to pour into it. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:07.079 It can be a shield for some and a weapon for 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:09.680 others, entirely dependent on whose head the 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.059 hat is sitting on. And I want to leave you, the 00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:14.259 listener, with a final thought to mull over. 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.359 When you look at the underlying psychology discussed 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:20.059 in the research, it becomes clear that the true 00:17:20.059 --> 00:17:23.380 power of the slogan doesn't actually lie in the 00:17:23.380 --> 00:17:27.319 words make. or America or even great. That's 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:29.660 a great point. The entire psychological hook 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:33.049 of the phrase relies entirely on the word. Because 00:17:33.049 --> 00:17:35.769 it triggers nostalgia. Exactly. That single word 00:17:35.769 --> 00:17:39.529 taps into a very well -documented universal human 00:17:39.529 --> 00:17:42.990 psychology known as rosy retrospection. It is 00:17:42.990 --> 00:17:45.430 essentially a glitch hardwired into our brains 00:17:45.430 --> 00:17:48.069 that causes us to remember the past more fondly 00:17:48.069 --> 00:17:50.049 than it actually was. Our memories naturally 00:17:50.049 --> 00:17:52.569 strip away the day -to -day anxiety, the boredom, 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:54.569 and the struggle of historical reality, leaving 00:17:54.569 --> 00:17:57.970 only a warm, nostalgic glow. The slogan weaponizes 00:17:57.970 --> 00:18:01.609 that cognitive bias perfectly. So as you go about 00:18:01.609 --> 00:18:04.170 your week, consider this. When you find yourself 00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:06.589 longing for the good old days in your own life, 00:18:06.730 --> 00:18:09.269 are you remembering reality as it was, or are 00:18:09.269 --> 00:18:11.509 you just watching a highly edited highlight reel? 00:18:11.730 --> 00:18:14.349 Thank you all so much for joining us on this 00:18:14.349 --> 00:18:16.309 journey through the history and impact of one 00:18:16.309 --> 00:18:19.450 of the modern era's most powerful phrases. We'll 00:18:19.450 --> 00:18:21.650 be back soon to unpack another massive topic. 00:18:21.930 --> 00:18:24.089 Until then, keep questioning, keep learning, 00:18:24.230 --> 00:18:26.190 and thanks for listening to The Deep Dive.