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The 10 worst products and companies Donald Trump has officially endorsed

Donald Trump has put his name to some truly bizarre products over the years. Here are the weirdest and the worst.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to hold a rally on July 3, 2021 in Sarasota, Florida. Co-sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida, the rally marks Trump's further support of the MAGA agenda and accomplishments of his administration. (Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images)
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Image

Like him or loathe him, Donald Trump is going to be dominating headlines for some time yet. He’s currently gearing up for his 2024 Presidential comeback run with a series of bizarre campaign speeches designed to rile up his many supporters still clinging to the lie that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from him. Bubbling underneath that is his potential indictment for making a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels after an extramarital affair, which has put New York City on high alert for violent action from his supporters.

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As you’ll all know, Trump isn’t just any Presidential candidate and has had a long and bizarre history in business and entertainment. Along the way, he’s rivaled The Simpsons‘ Krusty the Clown for putting his face and name on a ridiculous amount of unlikely products. So, here are the worst and weirdest things that Trump has endorsed:

10. Trump Steaks

Donald Trump during Launch of Trump Steaks at The Sharper Image at The Sharper Image in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/WireImage for Hill & Knowlton)
Stephen Lovekin/WireImage

Trump Steaks were launched in 2007 and were (unsurprisingly) billed as “The World’s Greatest Steaks”. Originally only available through The Sharper Image and QVC, packs retailed from $199 to $999, each featuring a mix of rib eyes, filet mignon and burgers.

Steak aficionados were unimpressed by what they got for this price, with Gourmet Magazine concluding “these steaks are wholly mediocre” and more than half of QVC customers rating them one or two stars on the site. Sales weren’t great either, with The Sharper Image CEO Jerry Levin clearly regretting agreeing to sell them, “The net of all that was we literally sold almost no steaks.”

9. Trump Vodka

Donald Trump during Trump Vodka Launch Party - Arrivals at Les Deux in Hollywood, California, United States. (Photo by M. Tran/FilmMagic)
M. Tran/FilmMagic

Donald Trump is a famous teetotaler, having sworn off ever drinking alcohol after blaming it for the death of his brother Fred Trump Jr. So eyebrows were raised when Trump Vodka launched in 2005, promising “success distilled”. That slogan proved ironic as Trump Vodka failed to meet sales expectations and was discontinued in 2011, with it being uneconomical to produce due to the expensive glass bottles and gold leaf used to make the labels.

As with many Trump-branded products, Trump Vodka eventually became the subject of a bitter lawsuit, with bottle manufacturer Bruni Glass suing over unpaid bills and having to shove 500,000 bottles into a furnace as a result. Trump counter-sued for unpaid royalties, but his case was dismissed.

Interestingly, Trump Vodka had a brief spike in popularity in Israel. As it’s made from potatoes rather than grain, it satisfies Kosher requirements and could be consumed during Passover. But in 2013, it was discovered that some bottles contained leavened ingredients after all.

8. Trump: The Game

Trump: The Game
Image via Parker Brothers

This 1989 board game lets you compete against other players in real estate, flipping properties in an effort to make more money than your friends. The game was designed by Jeffrey Breslow, who pitched it to Trump directly. He approved, saying “I really like the game. It’s much more sophisticated than Monopoly, which I’ve played all my life.”

Milton Bradley produced the game and had high hopes, setting a sales target of two million copies. In the end, it only sold 800,000, with critics pointing to the complex 12-page rule book and the public widely considering it an inferior clone of Monopoly.

Trump: The Game was eventually re-released by Parker Brothers in 2004 at the height of The Apprentice fame, though once again, the public wasn’t interested.

7. Trump Home Mattresses

Trump Home Mattresses ad
Image via YouTube

The connection between Donald Trump and mattresses is pretty tenuous, but we guess he does run hotels. Anyway, in 2009, Trump Home partnered with mattress manufacturer Serta for the “Trump Home Mattress Collection”, with each mattress featuring the Trump name emblazoned upon it.

Unfortunately, the 2008 economic recession hit Trump Mattresses with a downy thump, and the collection was quickly made available at cheaper prices than first planned. Then Trump went fully political, with his infamous 2015 campaign announcement referring to Mexican immigrants as “criminals, drug dealers, rapists…” Serta was horrified and chose not to renew the license, saying “Serta values diversity and does not agree with nor endorse the recent statements made by Mr. Trump.”

6. SUCCESS by Donald Trump

SUCCESS by Donald Trump
Image via Perfumania

Have you ever wanted to smell like Donald Trump? Well, SUCCESS lets you live that dream, billing itself as a “classy masculine juice” (ew). Launched in 2012, this fragrance is still available, though the reviews indicate that it’s perhaps not something you want to douse yourself in before a date.

Parfumo.com’s single review dubs it one of “the worst compositions I have ever sniffed to date”, that “even my darkest nightmares couldn’t prepare me for”, and “it is hard to imagine the composition smelling any worse.”

We can’t deny that we don’t want to smell it for ourselves to see if it’s really this unpleasant.

5. Trump Model Management

Trump Model Management
Trump Model Management website

Donald Trump launched his Presidential ambitions by promising an incredibly tough crackdown on illegal immigration, with his flagship policy the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. That made Trump Model Management (aka T Management, aka T Models) something of an embarrassment. At its height, the agency represented names like Paris Hilton, Yasmin le Bon and, yes, Melania Trump.

But by 2016, it was mired in controversy as multiple former Trump models claimed they’d worked for the agency without it obtaining proper work visas in the U.S. Senator Barbara Bower called on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to investigate the company on these grounds. Trump quickly shut down the agency upon becoming President, presumably realizing that even by his standards, this was a bad look.

4. Trump Mortgages

Donald Trump at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage)
Jim Spellman/WireImage

Would you take a loan from Donald Trump? That’s what Trump Mortgages were betting, with the company’s President E.J. Ridings promising that “we have created a safe haven where people can get the best deal on a residential or commercial mortgage without worrying about all the hidden clauses.”

Just two years later, Trump Mortgages was toast. This was apparently due to Ridings mismanaging the company, with it emerging that he got the job due to his connections to Donald Trump Jr. Within six months of operation, six top executives had quit and Ridings was accused of exaggerating his resume. Trump himself didn’t seem too upset to see it crater, saying “The mortgage business is not a business I particularly liked or wanted to be part of in a very big way.”

3. Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon!

Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon!
Image via Activision

Yup, there is in fact an official Donald Trump video game. The reason you probably haven’t heard of it is that it was released as part of Activision’s bargain bucket Value range on PC and later on the doomed N-Gage QD handheld console. You both work for and compete with Trump in the real estate market, with the man himself providing voice-acting for the game.

In a bizarre twist, in the N-Gage version, after beating five levels of virtual real-estate management you enter the final “Challenging Trump” mode, with your ultimate aim of driving him into bankruptcy (which is something that’s happened to six of his real-life companies). That sounds fun, though the game itself was dubbed “incredibly boring” so if you really want to stick it to Trump in a video game we recommend the Surgeon Simulator DLC where you’re asked to perform open-heart surgery on him.

2. Trump Digital Trading Card NFTs

Trump NFTs
Image via collecttrumpcards.com

Trump fans were on high alert in December 2022 when the former President teased a big announcement. Could this finally be the long-awaited “Kraken” that’d prove the election was stolen? Are the darkest predictions of QAnon about to be proven true? Maybe he’s finally about to “lock her up”! Nope, nope, and nope. The reality was a series of truly stupid NFT digital trading cards picturing him in various macho poses.

Even die-hard Trump supporters were feeling a little betrayed by the non-announcement, with some wondering whether it was a joke. It wasn’t, though some poor saps went out and bought them regardless.

1. Trump University

 Real estate mogul Donald Trump (R) speaks as university president Michael Sexton (L) looks on during a news conference announcing the establishment of Trump University May 23, 2005 in New York City. Trump University will consist of on-line courses, CD-ROMS and other learning programs for business professionals. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Mario Tama/Getty Images

The ill-fated Trump University is hands down the worst product Trump has pitched. After all, at least the crappy steaks, vodka and board games were a one-time purchase and you actually got a product. The mission of Trump University was to provide courses in real estate purchasing and management, together with advice on how to get rich… and quick!

The poor suckers who signed up for this were quickly rinsed of their money through aggressive sales tactics and ended up with useless, unaccredited qualifications. You know things are bad when even the intensely conservative National Review summarized it as a “massive scam“.

Like many Trump companies, the saga ended in the courtroom, with Trump University variously accused of racketeering, making false claims, misrepresenting themselves as an accredited university, and other deceptive practices. Trump ended up settling the lawsuit for $25 million, though claimed that “The ONLY bad thing about winning the Presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!”