Trump's new MAGA hat is a 'dog whistle against immigrants'

The new Trump hat is sure to be divisive.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 28 February 2018

President Trump's "biggest insult to immigrants at the State of the Union" has now been immortalized on — what else? — a hat. The $50 blue "American Dreamer" cap for sale in his campaign store is described as illustrating that "we all want to live the American dream and our 45th president is helping to make that dream a reality for each and every American."

During Trump's State of the Union address, the president riffed on the phrase "DREAMer," a term derived from the DREAM Act used to describe young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. "My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans — to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream," Trump had said. "Because Americans are dreamers too."

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Others believe the phrase "amounted to a racist dog-whistle against immigrants," Time writes. In a rebuttal, Dara Lind argued at Vox: "To say that 'Americans are dreamers too' misses the point … It only makes sense under a misunderstanding of what DREAMers are actually asking for — a belief that they're getting free college, for example — or under the zero-sum logic of status anxiety, in which any attention paid to a marginalized group must inherently mean that some other group must be losing ground."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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