Sales take a hit at ‘Trump Town’ merch store as shoppers voice frustration over president’s policies

At Whitey Taylor’s Trump Town, the heavy, chrome-dipped “Trump balls” were a big draw in December 2023 as the former president campaigned to take back the White House. On a return visit in September, well into Trump’s second term, the balls came in a new XL size. But fewer people were coming in to see them.

Sales are down in the whole store, an Aladdin’s Cave of Trump memorabilia from shot glasses and bobbleheads to ice-makers and balls to dangle from a truck hitch.

“There’s less stuff coming from China,” Taylor said. The overseas suppliers just weren’t making as much new and varied merchandise based on the latest Trumpisms. “It’s not selling like it was,” he explained, as he scanned a table of buttons, stickers and keychains that mostly commemorated Dolly Parton, America’s 250th anniversary, and Charlie Kirk. (Taylor said he’d diversified a bit.) At the peak, Taylor said, “We had a lot of $12,000 days, maybe a $15,000 day occasionally.” Now? “Well, 1,500, 2,000 bucks. We sometimes hit $3000.”

Taylor attributes some of the dropoff to the success of his store, located at a busy highway intersection in the tiny town of Boones Mill in southern Virginia. “Most everybody that comes, they’ve already got 10 Trump hats, five flags, and whatever else,” he said.

There is still a flow of fans coming in to buy Trump stuff. But amid the president’s record-low approval ratings , even his customers are wrestling with some dissatisfaction in the policies and their personal attachment to the president.

“I’m disappointed in the fuel prices,” Stevie Lovell, a friend of Taylor, said when he stopped by the store. “I’m not a supporter of the war in Iran,” he said, comparing it to the Iraq war and how “we found out we shouldn’t have been there, either.”

Lovell went on to say, “This thing that’s going on in Gaza is horrible. I think it’s more horrible than what’s going on in Iran, personally.” On top of that, he’d heard a news report that Trump had made more money in office than any other previous president. “It bothered me a little bit,” Lovell said.

Despite all that, Lovell said, “I’m still a Trump fan. I don’t agree with him all the way, but I don’t agree with my pastor all the way.”

What is so delicious about a Trump store is it’s full of physical objects that represent abstract political ideas. Many items had used Trump’s mug shot or the photo of him pumping his fist after an assassination attempt. It had taken longer to move canned cow farts that referenced a comment from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about global warming, but Taylor did eventually sell them. Recently, Taylor said, “college girls” were most likely to buy flags that showed Trump in front of the White House under the pink words, “DADDY’S HOME.” You can track which ones resonate most with what kind of people by looking at how much they sell and to whom. Less seems to be resonating now.

When CNN visited in December 2023 , several customers said they wanted Trump to bring some relief from the financial pressure they felt from inflation. In interviews in 2026, people said relief hasn’t come.

Two-thirds of Americans say Trump has made the economy worse , and majorities say the Iran war and tariffs have hurt them financially, according to a September CNN poll.

That same frustration with Trump’s major policies was voiced by Trump store shoppers, except some were reluctant to blame Trump himself.

Jamie Varela said she wanted to buy healthy food for her two teenagers but sometimes felt like “you’ve got to choose fruit or gas.” Her monthly grocery bill was between $800 and $1,000, she said. Asked if she thought Trump had some responsibility for those high prices, Varela said, “Yes, because of the war.”

Still, she thought the war in Iran was necessary. America is a big target, Varela said. “I’m sure we’ll see war here on American soil because, like I said, everyone’s gunning for us. So, it’s not really Trump’s fault. He’s just making it known to people that we’re not going to back down.”

Varela said she hadn’t decided who she’d vote for in the midterm elections .

Maria Martin, who was working at the cash register, hadn’t decided who to vote for either. Customer Barbara Keith said she always votes but didn’t want to reveal who she was picking this time. A resident of South Carolina, Keith said she wasn’t sure Darline Graham, who was appointed to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham as senator, had enough political experience.

“What I don’t understand is how can we make agreements with like Venezuela, and yet the gas prices are still up. What’s going on there?” Keith said. Asked what she thought was going on, Keith said,” I don’t think it’s Trump’s fault. “Everybody blames Trump for everything, and yet it’s not just one man making all the rules and laws and everything. It’s a whole bunch of people.”

Keith said she thought grocery prices would never come down, because businesses saw customers would pay higher prices. Asked about Trump’s campaign promise to lower those prices, Keith said “every politician” breaks their promises.

She said she was putting no faith in Trump’s pledge to give every American $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress in the midterms, simply stating, “all politicians lie.”

Trump’s appeal was once that he was not a politician, but an outsider. But Keith said, “They all become salesmen, and they’ll lie to get you to their votes. It doesn’t matter which side. You got to pick the worst of both evils.”

She did make her choice as a customer, and exited the store with a new Trump-face-shaped “end the wokeness” ice cube maker.

CNN’s Samantha Guff and Deb Brunswick contributed to this story.

在怀特·泰勒的“特朗普小镇”，那些沉甸甸的、镀铬的“特朗普球”在2023年12月吸引了大量游客，当时这位前总统正在竞选连任。到了9月，特朗普第二个任期已过半，泰勒再次造访时，这些球换成了加大号。但前来参观的人却少了。

整个商店的销售额都在下降，这家商店就像一个阿拉丁的宝库，里面摆满了特朗普的纪念品，从烈酒杯和摇头娃娃到制冰机和可以挂在卡车挂钩上的球，应有尽有。

“来自中国的商品少了，”泰勒说。海外供应商不再像以前那样，根据特朗普的最新言论生产那么多新颖多样的商品了。“现在卖得不如以前了，”他一边解释，一边扫视着桌上的徽章、贴纸和钥匙扣，这些东西大多是为了纪念多莉·帕顿、美国建国250周年以及查理·柯克。（泰勒说他已经稍微拓展了一下产品线。）泰勒说，生意最好的时候，“我们经常能一天赚12000美元，偶尔还能达到15000美元。”现在呢？“嗯，1500美元，2000美元。有时候能到3000美元。”

泰勒将部分客流量下降归因于他位于弗吉尼亚州南部小镇布恩斯米尔繁忙公路交叉口的店铺生意兴隆。“几乎每个来的人都已经买了10顶特朗普帽子、5面国旗，还有其他一些东西，”他说。

仍然有不少粉丝前来购买特朗普的周边产品。但即便在总统支持率跌至历史新低的当下，就连他的顾客也开始对他的政策以及他们对总统的个人情感产生一些不满。

“我对油价感到失望，”泰勒的朋友史蒂夫·洛弗尔路过商店时说道。“我不支持伊朗战争，”他说道，并将伊朗战争与伊拉克战争相提并论，并表示“我们后来发现，我们也不应该卷入伊拉克战争。”

洛弗尔接着说：“加沙正在发生的事情太可怕了。就我个人而言，我认为它比伊朗正在发生的事情更可怕。”此外，他还听到一则新闻报道，说特朗普在任期间的收入比以往任何一位总统都多。“这让我有点不安，”洛弗尔说。

尽管如此，洛弗尔说：“我仍然是特朗普的支持者。我并不完全同意他的观点，就像我也不完全同意我的牧师的观点一样。”

特朗普商店最吸引人的地方在于，它摆满了代表抽象政治理念的实物。许多商品都印有特朗普的嫌犯照，或是他在遭遇暗杀未遂后挥拳的照片。一些罐装牛屁的包装设计灵感来自众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯关于全球变暖的评论，销售速度较慢，但​​泰勒最终还是卖掉了。泰勒说，最近“女大学生”最喜欢购买印有特朗普站在白宫前，粉色字体写着“爸爸回家了”的旗帜。你可以通过观察商品的销量和购买人群来追踪哪些商品最能引起哪些人群的共鸣。现在看来，这些商品似乎不再那么受欢迎了。

2023年12月，CNN记者走访当地时，几位顾客表示，他们希望特朗普能够缓解通货膨胀带来的经济压力。然而，在2026年的采访中，人们却表示，这种缓解并未到来。

根据 CNN 9 月份的一项民意调查，三分之二的美国人认为特朗普让经济变得更糟，大多数人认为伊朗战争和关税给他们的经济造成了损害。

特朗普商店的顾客也表达了对特朗普主要政策的同样不满，只是有些人不愿意直接指责特朗普本人。

杰米·瓦雷拉说，她想给两个十几岁的孩子买健康食品，但有时感觉“必须在水果和汽油之间做出选择”。她说，她每月的食品杂货账单在800到1000美元之间。当被问及她是否认为特朗普应该为高物价承担部分责任时，瓦雷拉说：“是的，因为战争。”

不过，她仍然认为伊朗战争是必要的。瓦雷拉说，美国是一个很大的目标。“我确信我们会在美国本土看到战争，因为就像我说的，每个人都想对我们下手。所以，这真的不是特朗普的错。他只是在向人们表明，我们不会退缩。”

瓦雷拉说她还没有决定在中期选举中投票给谁。

在收银台工作的玛丽亚·马丁也还没决定投谁的票。顾客芭芭拉·基思说她每年都会投票，但这次不想透露自己会选谁。基思是南卡罗来纳州居民，她说她不确定接替已故哥哥林赛·格雷厄姆担任参议员的达琳·格雷厄姆是否有足够的政治经验。

“我不明白的是，我们明明和委内瑞拉这样的国家达成了协议，油价却依然居高不下。到底是怎么回事？”基思说道。当被问及她认为原因时，基思说：“我不认为这是特朗普的错。每个人都把所有事情都归咎于特朗普，但制定所有规则和法律并非他一人之功，而是很多人共同努力的结果。”

基思说她认为食品杂货价格永远不会下降，因为商家认为顾客会愿意支付更高的价格。当被问及特朗普竞选时承诺降低物价时，基思说“每个政客”都会违背自己的承诺。

她表示，她不相信特朗普关于如果共和党在中期选举中继续控制国会，就给每个美国人 5000 美元的承诺，只是简单地说：“所有政客都会撒谎。”

特朗普曾经的吸引力在于他不是政客，而是一个局外人。但基思说：“他们最终都会变成推销员，为了获得选票，他们会撒谎。选哪一边都无所谓。你只能在两害相权取其轻。”

她作为顾客做出了选择，带着一台印有特朗普脸形图案的“结束觉醒主义”制冰机离开了商店。

CNN的Samantha Guff和Deb Brunswick对本文亦有贡献。