January 19, 2017

Trump thought of the line "Make America Great Again" the day after Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election.

"Five days later, Trump signed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office..."
... in which he asked for exclusive rights to use “Make America Great Again” for “political action committee services, namely, promoting public awareness of political issues and fundraising in the field of politics.” He enclosed a $325 registration fee....

The slogan itself was not entirely original. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had used “Let’s Make America Great Again” in their 1980 campaign — a fact that Trump maintained he did not know until about a year ago.

“But he didn’t trademark it,” Trump said of Reagan.

His decision to claim legal ownership reflected a businessman’s mind-set. “I think I’m somebody that understands marketing,” Trump said....

The trademark became effective on July 14, 2015, a month after Trump formally announced his campaign and met the legal requirement that he was actually using it for the purposes spelled out in his application.

53 comments:

Michael K said...

He saw what had cost Romney the election. He did not get the white despairing vote out and he was too nice a guy.

traditionalguy said...

Genius or good luck? That is the question. The Perdue family in middle Georgia just got a Sec'y of Agriculture appointment. Perhaps as a tip of the hat/cap to his cousin David Perdue who learned marketing by listening to his customers at Dollar General stores. He used it to create the Outsider Businessman Running Against The Corrupt Political Establishment campaign to win a Senate seat in his first ever election. He shared that plan with DJT, and DJT went out and got the copywrite on it.

Clyde said...

And just like 1980 with Reagan-Bush, we had a need in 2016 to "Make America Great Again." Reagan did it, in a lot of ways. I hope that Trump can be equally successful.

Mike Sylwester said...

I thought that you can't trademark racist phrases.

Big Mike said...

@traditionalguy, success requires a lot of the talent and a fair amount of the luck. Plus hard work, and it's clear that Trump outworked Hillary Clinton and is already outworking his predecessor in office.

Curious George said...

""Five days later, Trump signed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office..."
... in which he asked for exclusive rights to use “Make America Great Again” for “political action committee services, namely, promoting public awareness of political issues and fundraising in the field of politics.” He enclosed a $325 registration fee...."

That doesn't mean Bob Dylan can't paint it.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I'd like to hear what Trump thought after he heard Obama's "You didn't build that" bullshit.

Big Mike said...

And I'd like to add that it will be nice to have a President that thinks ahead instead of being surprised by events and learning about crises from the newspapers instead of from his staff.

buwaya said...

Illustrates the biggest difference between Trump and Obama.
Trump is the mover, not the moved. He is the painter, whatever you may think of his taste, not the brush.

Wilbur said...

God, just looking at a few of the comments after this WaPo slice of pie produces double face palms.

Big Mike said...

@AJ, I can guess the answer. Take a look at the expression on Trump's face as Obama and Seth Meyers are publicly mocking him in 2011. They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Are six years long enough for it to chill?

David Begley said...

Part of what drives the political class crazy about Trump is that he is a better consultant than they are. He thought up his tag line all by himself. He didn't spend on commercials like they recommend. With his free Twitter account, he dominated the conversation. He hardly spent anything. A pure amateur completely disrupted the political process of the professionals. And he won.

Unknown said...

The Russian translation of "Make America Great Again" is "Сделать Америку великой Снова". Might come in useful someday soon.

Gusty Winds said...

And boy did that simple word AGAIN piss off all the right people.

Hagar said...

Speaking of marketing, the GOP needs to market their Obamacare replacement as the welfare program that it is, and then see if the country wants it when it is called by its proper name.

As it is, it looks like they are repeating the Democrats' mistake: negotiating their program between Congress and the insurance industry, while entirely leaving out the medical "community," which actually delivers the health care, and the bureaucracy, which is to enforce it - HHS on the medical "community" and IRS on the taxpayers.

BTW, if the state mandates that I give up part of my income for "the common good," then that is a tax by any other name. The insurance companies then are simply in the position of being tax farmers.

Larry J said...

David Begley said...
Part of what drives the political class crazy about Trump is that he is a better consultant than they are. He thought up his tag line all by himself. He didn't spend on commercials like they recommend. With his free Twitter account, he dominated the conversation. He hardly spent anything. A pure amateur completely disrupted the political process of the professionals. And he won.


What really burned the political consultants' asses was that he didn't have to pay them millions of dollars in commissions to run his campaign. When a candidate buys air time, he pays commissions to the consultants. They make millions off of a national campaign regardless of whether their candidate wins or loses. They're like stock brokers in that regard. Trump proved that you don't have to run campaigns the old way and that you can still win.

Michael K said...

it looks like they are repeating the Democrats' mistake: negotiating their program between Congress and the insurance industry, while entirely leaving out the medical "community,"

This is why the GOP Congressional party is unreliable. They are tax lawyers and live by symbols, like all politicians.

In 1994, I actually volunteered to help after the Republicans took Congress. I had just finished a health policy degree at Dartmouth after 25 years of private practice. I was willing to work for nothing. Judd Gregg, the NH Senator helped me get access to the committees.

Nope. Any health policy would be written by tax lawyers.

Trump needs help and maybe Price knows how to do it.

Unknown said...

Bruce Springsteen Needled Trump Fans Further by Giving the Obamas a Private Concert
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/bruce-springsteen-barack-obama-concert-donald-trump

Springsteen gave Obama and Staffers private concert at White House on 12 January 2017.

Ah, poor Trumpland. Still playing Born in the USA? It's not part of your culture, you know.

Try "Back to the USSR" by a Russian Beatles tribute band.

dmoelling said...

Wow, such business acumen to copyright a slogan! When everyone is done being astounded at his Trumpness recall that any good marketing consultant would have done this without having the CEO do this. A real executive (including the President of the USA) is not down in the details or you end up like Jimmy Carter.

This will show increasingly as Trumps twitter ideas and slogans do not match with the details in actual legislation to get them done. That's the hard work where the President must develop firm ideas and deep understanding.

traditionalguy said...

CNN on Cuomo's show had Bobby Knight on an interview, probably hoping he would act mean to confirm their Mad Man Trump Narrative.

But Bobby just sincerely told them DJT was the best qualified candidate for President because he is a smart, calm and dedicated problem solver at the moment of peak problems facing the USA.

Try as they could, he stuck to that truth, repeating it again and again. He added that his wife was pro Hillary until she saw Trump up close on the 2 months of campaign stops they accompanied him on, and she finally agreed he was by far the best candidate.

David Begley said...

Larry J

And Trump knows the commission side of the business. He said several people got rich from Mitt's campaign. Dr. Carson's campaign was run by the consultants and Trump said so. Carson spent way too much on fund raising and direct mail.. I got a CD of his wife singing and a T shirt.

khesanh0802 said...

Underlines, once again, how badly most people misjudged Trump. He knew what he was doing from the get-go. Let's hope it continues.

@dmoelling I hate to break it to you but CEOs are always involved in branding discussions. They can sometimes be obtuse and unhelpful, but they are always involved. The brand - the image - effects the way a company is perceived in the consumer and investor segments. The CEO would be a fool not to be involved. Give Trump some credit he trademarked his slogan 4 years before he needed it.

khesanh0802 said...

@michaelK I understand your fears, but I doubt that Price is going to allow the medical community to go unheard. Whatever replaces the ACA will be hammered out mostly in public. Sausage making at its finest!

Fernandinande said...

Wilbur said...
God, just looking at a few of the comments after this WaPo slice of pie produces double face palms.


Where else could one learn that the phrase "Make America Great Again" was swiped from Hitler? It's straight from "lewisrs", who can also predict the future.

Hagar said...

It is like "the war on terror." You cannot win this war without making it clear that by "terror" you mean Islamic jihad.
And you cannot have a health care program "accessible to all" without admitting it is a welfare program and organizing it accordingly, i.e., you must define whom you mean by "all" and you must have control of the services provided, that is, you must have direct control - at least largely - over the medical "community."
In "Europe" - at least it was the case in Norway - the overwhelming number of hospitals and clinics belonged to the local governments, so the citizens did not see so much difference, or care, that these facilities were taken over by the state. (Incidentally - again at least in Norway - the state now has changed its mind and are pushing the local governments to take them back), but in the U.S. they are mostly private or run by "non-profit" charitable institutions.

Ann Althouse said...

"Wow, such business acumen to copyright a slogan!"

It's not copyright.

Anonymous said...

Hagar: As it is, it looks like they are repeating the Democrats' mistake: negotiating their program between Congress and the insurance industry, while entirely leaving out the medical "community," which actually delivers the health care, and the bureaucracy, which is to enforce it...

If so, they will fail. Bigly. Let's hope it's not so.

David Begley said...

Trump trademarked the phrase.

Now I hope he fixes our wrecked patent system. Totally screwed up.

FullMoon said...

Big Mike said... [hush]​[hide comment]

@AJ, I can guess the answer. Take a look at the expression on Trump's face as Obama and Seth Meyers are publicly mocking him in 2011. They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Are six years long enough for it to chill?


Yep, Trump did not even pretend to be amused. More of a "Ima catch these punks in the alley" sort of attitude.

FullMoon said...

dmoelling said...

Wow, such business acumen to copyright a slogan! When everyone is done being astounded at his Trumpness recall that any good marketing consultant would have done this without having the CEO do this. A real executive (including the President of the USA) is not down in the details or you end up like Jimmy Carter.

This will show increasingly as Trumps twitter ideas and slogans do not match with the details in actual legislation to get them done. That's the hard work where the President must develop firm ideas and deep understanding.


Right, and gonna lose medicare and social security. Coat hanger abortions. Doom and gloom, agony and despair around the corner. Concentration camps for Muslims. Little mexican babies kicked out of USA. Just wait and see, Trumpsters gonna be sorry!

wildswan said...

Effective and great. Just like Donald Trump.

Can't wait for tomorrow. I predict a lot of executive order repeals while outside the Democrats beclown themselves - weeping again, tweeting pix of themselves weeping, claiming to be the biggest weeper of them all, throwing stink bombs, insulting Trump supporters (show 'em what you think, be very public in denouncing these Yankee Doodles), crying in the subways, crying in Lafayette Park. Tell yourself that when they see you crying it makes them sorry. Run by the crowd, crying and saying, "you meanies made me cwy, cwy, cwy." And support anarchists if they go out and wreck businesses - that will be popular among the blacks. Oooooups, they owned those businesses. Who knew?

mccullough said...

It's a catchy slogan. Optimistic and critical of status quo. He probably turned a profit on it. The political consultants who ran Mitt and Hillary's campaigns must be envious.

Anonymous said...

khesanh0802: @dmoelling I hate to break it to you but CEOs are always involved in branding discussions. They can sometimes be obtuse and unhelpful, but they are always involved.

dmoelling is just repeating a variation of the tired meme that Trump isn't really interested in being president, just ran for shits, grins, and ego, and oh boy will he ever be put out and sulky when he discovers that it's a real, hard job.

As I said, tired, but still going strong among the lib cat-lady and cuckservative sets.

David Baker said...

Ever notice how Mitt Romney and Nancy Pelosi walk with the same short, quick-step gate. Like their lower orifices have been stapled shut.

Well, Donald Trump sure noticed.

Kathryn51 said...

"Springsteen gave Obama and Staffers private concert at White House on 12 January 2017.


All that does is prove that Obama is a high-octane prick - he may have instructed his folks to not remove the "W" (or "T") from the keyboards, but his petty, vindictive little mind is having a field day in other ways. Guess he didn't learn from the Correspondents dinner, did he?

Chuck said...

Mitt Romney: The Best President We Never Had.

I should Trademark that.

wildswan said...

And newsies, you who hate Trump, practice up your solemn faces and how to exchange grave looks and how to deplore in level mournful tones.

And here's a little factoid for you. Under Obama former racial categories used by segregationists returned. Social justice warriors demanded successfully that these categories be enshrined once again as social policy only now the categories were to be used to to achieve social justice. Health disparities would be analysed in these terms, school suspensions would be analyzed in these terms and so on - all done by HHS. And this wasn't using categories which were thought of as merely reified injustice. This, SJW's believe, this was using biological categories guaranteed by genetics but using them in such a way as to end past injustice, using them correctly.

To me, watching the SJW's bringing the categories of the segregationists back into social policy is like watching 26 people on their way to the bridge of San Luis Rey. Only I know why they will fall. It is because nothing safe can be built with that contaminated legacy.

Those who believe in America and its basis in a universal shared human nature will not accept the social policies based on SJW racism and I believe Donald Trump, (whose trademark is Make America Great Again) will make America great by returning to its universalist promises. And I hope his administration will drain the segregationst/SJW swamp that has been building in HHS. The behavior genetics policy at NIH is based on the premises of biodemography and as I am always saying, biodemography is the new eugenics. The biodemographers have built the bridge to future, the "bridge of San Luis Rey", that the SJW's hope to use. It must be dismantled.

Now there is something to look serious about.

Gusty Winds said...

We just received and email at work, that our neighbor Busch Precision in Northwest Milwaukee is closing. The company was started in 1907 and was a part of Milwaukee's manufacturing history. I don't know what happened; they had made a couple of acquisitions in 2014 and 2015, but more than likely they could not compete with imported Chinese tooling. That's the story for many belly-up tool and die operations.

Sad! And it is a part of America that is no longer great. In this area Trump is right and so is his slogan.

We can't survive on being an economy based on Adjunct SJW Professors, Cell Phone App developers, Lawyers, and lifetime bureaucrats. Remember during the recall campaign when Milwaukee's Mayor Barrett said he would focus on 'wind' to rebuild Wisconsin's economy? That's all he had. Wind.

It is time for a re-balancing on what is considered fair trade. And let's hope it can Make Milwaukee Great Again.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

That puts the timeline of Trump's first step towards running before the 2013 golden shower show in Moscow. If that can ever be substantiated, it would put Trump in the Anthony Weiner category.

Anonymous said...

MRGA.

Chuck said...

The opener on Rush Limbaugh today; he's describing the absolute outrage, that CNN featured a lengthy story yesterday on what would happen if Trump were assassinated before he could be inaugurated, and how the order of succession would proceed...

Rush is right. I saw that CNN segment, live. Watching it, I had the same appalled reaction as Rush. Can anybody freaking imagine, what would happen if a cable network did a feature on who might take Executive Branch power, if Barack Obama was assassinated on the morning before his inauguration?

Chuck said...

And on CNN right now, the scroll at that bottom of the screen headlines 'SENATE CONFRONTS CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP TREASURY NOMINEE" or something like that.

Yesterday, it was 'CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP HHS NOMINEE' and 'CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP EPA NOMINEE.'

Somebody should do screen-caps of all of the times that CNN uses "CONTROVERSIAL" this week.

Unknown said...

dmoelling: "Wow, such business acumen to copyright a slogan!" As Prof. Althouse noted, it was trademarked, not copyrighted. Different. And stronger. The purpose was, I think, to make sure that others could not chase him off that patch of IP, and he could (if he chose) chase others off it. I rather doubt he has ever gone after anybody, but that fact that he COULD do so, gave him critical freedom-to-operate as he built his marketing strategy.

It's only one little data point but perhaps a telling one, and certainly a good story. Look at all of us, going on and on about it! Exactly what he wants.

roesch/voltaire said...

Trump is ever ready to brand especially after the loser who he once endorsed lost.

Scott said...

Okay, so if you're running for Mayor of Siren, Wisconsin, you can't use "Make America Great Again" as a slogan, or Donald Trump will sue you? That's asinine.



Scott said...

I would use the slogan so that The Donald WOULD sue me. What great publicity!

Scott said...

Would "Make Siren Great Again" be an infringement?

What if you're a bottler of soda? Would "Make America Grape Again" get you in trouble with the President of the United States?

Scott said...

A maker of dresses, or French pancakes -- "Make America Crepe Again"

A maker of auto parts -- "Make America Brake Again"

A bottler of high-caffeine drinks -- "Make America Shake Again"

Roto-Rooter -- "Make America Snake Again"

&c.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Scott, what are the odds that Trump is lusting for people to do just that? Meanwhile, if you can trademark "threepeat," why not this?

Big Mike said...

@wildswan, I remember the time before Civil Rights in the 1960s. I concur that the USA molded by Barack Obama is very nearly as segregated as the USA of that era.

I expect the statue of Martin Luther King to start crying any day now.

wildswan said...

Blogger Big Mike said...
I expect the statue of Martin Luther King to start crying any day now.

The incredible thing is that "biological essentialism" (racism) has been taken up as the basis for acceptable research sponsored by HHS/ NIH since the end of the Human Genome project. They believe geneticists can use the old segregationist categories as research categories within which to study human diversity on behalf of restorative justice. But the initial use of categories defined by segregationists is an original sin which contaminates everything downstream, as I see it. There's no way to use racism that doesn't become racism albeit a slightly mutant form. But worst of all, the eugenicists are backing this trend from their perch within NIH where, under the title biodemographers, they dominate behavior genetics. The presence of eugenics guarantees an evil outcome for this misguided policy of attempting to use racism to achieve justice. That's why I say the whole crew is heading for the bridhe of San Luis Rey.

[The attempted repurposing of racism is not a secret. It is openly discussed in policy papers and books. See for, example, Race Decoded by Catherine Bliss. It's hard to believe people could be so foolish - that is all that prevents it from being widely known.]

Fen said...

"This will show increasingly as Trump - "

Sorry, we decline to be lectured about the future by those who got everything wrong about the election.

But tell us again about how Hillary thinks Texas is now in play.

HT said...

"I think I’m somebody that understands marketing,”

And that's it. End of story, go home. Marketing.