Bloodied Trump photos from rally shooting are topping campaign and GoFundMe pages, selling on t-shirts

By Charles Passy

The Trump campaign is now leading its website with the powerful image. 'That picture is going to be one for the century.'

Will the image of a bloodied Donald Trump raising his fist after nearly being assassinated become the defining image of his re-election campaign?

That's the question some are asking after this imagery topped newspaper front pages - and in light of the fact that online merchants are already selling T-shirts with such an image, much as was done with the former president's mug shot. Trump was injured during the Saturday shooting at a rally in Butler, Pa., and one attendee was killed, while two others were critically injured.

There was also speculation that the Trump presidential campaign might use a photo from the event as part of its messaging in the heated race that the former president and presumed Republican nominee is facing against President Joe Biden.

Sure enough, by Monday, the Trump National Committee, a campaign fundraising arm, had prominently displayed one of these photos on its website, with the message "Fear Not" posted above it.

Plus, a GoFundMe campaign to support the victims of the shooting also uses a photo from the aftermath of the assassination attempt. The campaign, which says it has been authorized by Trump, has raised nearly $4 million so far.

'That picture is going to be one for the century.'Political marketing expert Craig Agranoff

"That picture is going to be one for the century," said Craig Agranoff, a veteran political-marketing expert.

Agranoff added that he's not surprised to see the merchandising happening so quickly: "This is one powerful image."

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The image that appears to be getting the most circulation is one by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci. Time magazine has put it on its cover, and former Time photo editor Patrick Witty called it the "definitive" photo of the event.

But plenty of other pictures are also making the rounds and being used in T-shirts, coffee mugs and the like.

On the Etsy (ETSY) platform alone, more than 100 T-shirts featuring an image from the shooting are on sale. In many cases, the image is accompanied by a message, such as "Fight" or "Never surrender."

'This is one powerful image.'Political marketing expert Craig Agranoff

Merchants moved quickly to get T-shirt offerings featuring the already-iconic image of Trump available online. The South China Morning Post reported that Chinese sellers, who often market to U.S. customers, had shirts ready within a few hours of the event.

"We put the T-shirts [online] as soon as we saw the news about the shooting, though we hadn't even printed them, and within three hours we saw more than 2,000 orders from both China and the U.S.," Li Jinwei, a Chinese seller, told the South China Morning Post.

Agranoff said he believes the Trump campaign will definitely consider creating merchandise itself off the shooting, much as it had done with the mug shot released from his August 2023 booking at Georgia's Fulton County Jail tied to an election-interference case.

Agranoff said the campaign will have to be careful and sensitive in its messaging, recognizing that one person died and others were injured as a result of the shooting.

Related: Elon Musk, Bill Ackman say they are endorsing Trump for president

Of course, there are copyright matters that also need to be addressed in using a photo.

Michelle Suskauer, a Florida attorney and former president of the Florida Bar association, said this is potentially a different situation than the one involving the mug shot, which was an image essentially available as part of the public record.

In the case of images from the Trump rally shooting, Suskauer explained that they are the property of the photographer and/or the photo agency responsible for distributing the picture. And as such, merchants or the Trump campaign would need to seek permission to use the image, and would likely be required to compensate for such usage.

That doesn't mean every merchant is following the proper procedure. But Suskauer said the law is clear when it comes to an image like this.

"It would be a violation of the copyright to use and capitalize on it" without permission, she explained.

MarketWatch reached out to Etsy and several Etsy sellers for comment, along with the Trump campaign and the Associated Press, but didn't receive any responses.

-Charles Passy

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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07-15-24 1129ET

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