With its approval ratingNew Yorkers seem to have lost confidence in their mayor Eric Adams. But Mr. Adams is in advance where he puts his own confidence at the moment: with God.
Tuesday, Mr. Adams, who announced that he would be Re -election Not as a democrat but independent, appeared in a press briefing carrying a t-shirt with the words “in God, we have confidence”, printed above an American flag.
“This outfit is not campaigning, this outfit is my life,” Adams told journalists when he asked him questions about the white shirt, which seemed to be as high -end as something bought in a Boardwalk memory stand.
“I went through hell for 15 months and all I had was God,” said Adams, alluding to the federal corruption accusations that were abandoned against him this month.
Mr. Adams is not the only political figure that brought the graphic t-shirt to formal political spaces.
During the address of the proud hours of President Trump in early March, a group of democrats wore slogan t-shirts, providing a clap based on cotton at the president’s discussion points. Some have brandished the recognizable text: “Resist”. Florida representative Maxwell Frost, the first member of the Gen-Z congress, brought a tee with the slogan “No Kings Live Here”.
Elon Musk, in his role as presidential advisor, brought Gamer-Bro Fashion in the West wing. In February, when he gave heads of department at the first meeting of the Trump administration cabinet, Mr. Musk wore a dark shirt displaying the words “technical support”.
With his font in blocks and his word play Winky, he channeled the visual language of an internet. It was therefore not surprising that the “technological support” shirt became its own circulating on X. Similar t-shirts are sold on Amazon for $ 19.
Kamala Harris offered a recent anterior example of the graphic t-shirt in politics, last October, she wore a flared TEE with “Detroit against everyone“Under a blazer during the campaign in Michigan. It was a dress response to Mr. Trump, who said earlier” our country will eventually be like Detroit if she is your president “, referring to Mrs. Harris. With the shirt, Harris won a viral moment that lived after his speech.
While supporters have long worn political t-shirts (from “Dew-it-With Dewey” to “Bernie 2020”), there is a novelty for the politicians themselves seizing graphic t-shirts.
“It is, on the whole, a new phenomenon because politicians become more relaxed, less formal and that our culture of news becomes more visual,” said Peter Loge, associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University.
More display panels than clothing
When Mr. Trump launched this first America, he again has a hat, he inaugurated an era of political communication which is noisy, literal and often borrowed.
“The t-shirt says,” Here is what I represent, I am one of you, I understand you, I come to be with me, “said Loge.
Trump “struck this seal on this idea of politicians, even in their official quality, engaging in a very explicit brand activity,” said Joel Penney, associate professor at the School of Communication and Media at the Montclair State University.
That other politicians promote T-shirts on hats show how much Mr. Trump has deeply possessed the political ceiling. Wearing a slogan hat now would happen too transparently as “making a Trump”. InternationalThe hat was twisted with slogans like “Canada is not for sale”, sending a message to the Trump conditions.
However, politicians on both sides of the aisle seem to have learned to speak and get dressed now in his direct, digestible and sometimes disruptive language.
Like a hat “Make America Great Again”, Mr. Frost’s “No Kings Live Here” shirt wore a memorable slogan which could also be interpreted as a portable cry to the opposition.
“Democratic t-shirts are a way to express anger or frustration,” said Loge. Mr. Frost cleverly played at the time of the media of his shirt by leaving Mr. Trump’s speech, allowing the cameras to capture the full text, which was printed at the back of the TEE while he was riding the aisle. The shirt was then a form of closed subtitling of protest.
In today’s cacophonic political landscape, obtain a word – anyway, even with a commonplace t -shirt – has a priority on the decorum.
“The media come to people so quickly and furious that I think that politicians are looking for everything that could gain some purchase,” said Lori Poloni-Staudinger, Dean at the Collège des Sciences et behaviorals at the University of Arizona.
Wearing your words has proven to be a way to cut. At the Gala puts 2021, a large case, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez de New York wore an ivory dress with “Tax the rich“In red painting in the back, triggering days of speech. During Mr. Trump’s first term, when his wife Melania Trump wore an olive jacket with words “I really don’t care. To visit an immigrant detention center, the media coverage days have debated the real Meaning of the jacket.
The fact that the graphic t-shirt becomes a tool of a politician also shows how X Posts and Tiktok Clips have completely defeated television interviews such as the medium by which many voters are soaked from political and new images. Only a few thousand people watched a YouTube video of the press conference during which Mr. Adams wore the T-shirt “In God we Trust”. But only one tweet About the shirt has been seen more than 36,000 times.
“If you are able to transmit a message with your t-shirt or something else, then in a way that could capture the public’s imagination for at least a short period,” said Poloni-Staudinger.
However, said Mr. Loge, this is perhaps the exact level of complexity that voters today to want Their political discussion points to come.
“We do not think of politics most of the time,” said Loge. “And I don’t have to think of a t-shirt. I look at him and I understand. “