Let’s Go Brandon, Jersey’s pro-Trump merch store, grapples with a new opponent

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — The “Let’s Go Brandon” shop near the Jersey Shore is still doing swift business: in Trump mugs, Trump-Vance flags, Trump poker chips, Trump T-shirts, Trump pop-up birthday cards and “Trump Hair” cotton candy. Since the assassination attempt on the former president, the store has branded everything from blankets to magnets with photos of Trump defiantly raising his fist in the air.

The products skewering the opposition are selling less well. That’s because the store, much like the Republican Party as a whole, is in the midst of a marketing pivot after the main focus of its contempt, President Joe Biden, withdrew from the presidential race. Let’s Go Brandon, which opened in Toms River in 2022, got its name from the conservative shorthand for the phrase “F— Joe Biden.”

Suddenly, a movement — and a market — built in part on mocking Biden’s words and deeds must cast around for new lines of attack. Of course the presidency is on the line. But so are the profits of every mom-and-pop shop peddling adversarial merch.

“I mean, we’re not buying any more of the ‘F— Biden’ stuff, because it pretty much ran its course,” said Greg Dooner, who manages the store. He said the leftover product would probably get sent to the half-price rack, where it will join the pink “DeSantis 2024: Make America Florida” hats.

‘‘‘F— Biden’ is great. That’s my favorite,” Dooner added wistfully, pointing to a bumper sticker featuring the phrase. “Maybe we can make one: F— Kamala and F— You for Voting for Her.”

Everyone is brainstorming. The anti-Biden merchants are facing the same problem as Donald Trump himself. The Republican candidate has been trying to puzzle out how to portray his likely new opponent, testing derisive nicknames on the campaign trail.

He has tried Biden’s “Cackling Co-Pilot” and “Laffin’ Kamala Harris,” both jabs at Harris’ laugh. He has recycled previous insults, such as “crooked” and “lyin’,” that he’s used to define other politicians, the New York Times reported. (In response, Harris has said that the insults Trump and Vance have thrown at her are “just plain weird.”)

Sometimes Trump simply returns to the old classics.

“Kamala, you’re fired!” he told supporters recently in Charlotte, N.C., referring to his famous catchphrase on The Apprentice, as the crowd cheered.

Let’s Go Brandon has long been a crude crowdpleaser. It dates to 2021, when a winning NASCAR driver named Brandon Brown was being interviewed by an NBC sports reporter in Alabama. It was hard to make out what the crowd behind him was chanting. The reporter suggested perhaps they were saying “Let’s Go Brandon,” until it became clear they were saying “F— Joe Biden.”

“It’s catchy. Everybody knew what it meant,” said Vincent Scuzzese, who owns the Let’s Go Brandon shop. A few similar shops popped up across the country when the phrase was popular, including one with the same name in the Poconos, though it now operates under the more straightforward “The Trump Store.” All are unrelated to Scuzzese’s shop.

In 2022, Scuzzese signed a five-year lease on the merchandise store, which is in a strip mall a few miles from the Shore. It was a bold bet on the longevity of the joke. (He also manages another longtime business in the amusements industry, he said.)

He doesn’t plan on changing the store’s name at least until the election. “He’s still president, isn’t he?” he asked. It’s not an official campaign shop, though Scuzzese says he does donate to the Trump campaign.

When he first started selling political gear in 2020, it was almost all anti-Biden merchandise, because that’s what people wanted to buy. Over the years, the ratio has shifted and now about 70% of the products are pro-Trump.

Doubling down on Trump has delighted some customers. Lucy Capriglione, 70, referred to the store as “my therapy.”

“It just relaxes me,” she said, gesturing to the Trump 2024 hats and the “Fight Fight Fight” flags and the decals featuring Trump, with middle fingers raised, below the phrase “You Missed F—ers.”

She was having Democrats over for dinner, she said, and planned to serve them Trump-branded chocolate and Trump-branded wine. She only wished she had access to Trump-themed napkins, plates, and cups.

“Do we have party goods?” she asked an employee.

Five days after Biden announced that he would not be seeking reelection, the Let’s Go Brandon store was still packed with eponymous skateboards, duct tape, flags, and T-shirt decals.

The problem was not how quickly Scuzzese could get new products in. (“[I’m] Uncle Vinny, of course I get everything quick,” he said by way of explaining his supply chain.)

It’s more that the store, and the broader MAGA movement, is still workshopping. Two new Harris-themed T-shirts hung near the entrance, both featuring the Joker’s face superimposed on top of the vice president’s. One said “Let’s Go Brenda”; the other referred to Harris as Gotham’s “New Villain ... the Giggler.”

But Scuzzese’s heart wasn’t all in yet. Not like with Let’s Go Brandon.

“We don’t even know if she’s gonna really run, so we don’t know. So I don’t want to go too deep,” Scuzzese said. “Once we know she’s running, it’s a different story.”