Earlier this month Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, decided to swap out his usual American flag lapel pin. Instead of the stars and stripes, he pinned a gold medallion in the shape of President Trump’s profile, about the size of a quarter, to his blue suit and wore it to meet with a Georgia congressman, Buddy Carter, and later to a meeting at the Justice Department. He then memorialized the meetings on X.
The pin was noticed by Benny Johnson, a conservative YouTuber, who posted a shot of it on X along with the line “Do you even understand the level of fit that Brendan Carr has?” to his 3.6 million followers. Mr. Carr reposted it. And so a mini social media moment was born.
Rumors flew across the internet that Mr. Trump was requiring members of his administration to wear the pins. “Fake news” wrote Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, in an email a few days later. Mr. Carr has not been seen wearing the pin since.
Yet the mere fact that someone who worked for Mr. Trump thought it might be a good idea to display his boss’s likeness on his lapel, no matter how briefly, is notable.
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Especially because it is not the only Trump likeness currently popping up in the administration. Mr. Trump’s face also graces an example of what he has called the Trump “Gold Card”: a mock-up of the proposed green card for those willing to pay $5 million, which Mr. Trump unveiled the same day Mr. Carr modeled his Trump lapel pin and which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said should come into effect in the next week or so.
Mr. Carr’s post on X, which included a photo of him wearing a Trump lapel pin.
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