US President Donald Trump's Twitter feed is a media celebrity in and of itself, and, with the right approach, can drive sales of totally nonpolitical merchandise. Sam Morrison, a photographer and artist from Los Angeles, was inspired by 45's online incarnation into making a visual pun: sandals, also known as "flip flops," with Trump's seemingly at-odds positions du jour.
"Take a scroll through Donald Trump's 40,000 tweets, and you're sure to catch some contradicting opinions," Morrison told Business Insider, reflecting a common sentiment towards the tweets.
Morrison has chosen three pairs of tweets for his creation.
The first pair regard the US' intervention in Syria: in a 2013 tweet, Trump urged then-President Barack Obama not to get involved in the Middle Eastern country; and a 2017 tweet, written after Obama had brought US forces into the Syrian conflict and Trump had taken office, he congratulated the US military for "representing the United States and the world so well in the Syria attack."
all too relevant pic.twitter.com/SM07dHdpiU
— sam. (@SamTheCobra) 14 апреля 2018 г.
Another pair of tweets is about the Electoral College — the US institution which Trump has criticized for years, including during his own presidential campaign. It's hard to miss the irony that the same institution played into Trump's own favor in 2016, since he lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College by 27 votes, securing the presidency.
In a 2012 tweet, Trump called the college "a disaster for a democracy."
Going back on your word, one step at a time.
— President Flip Flops (@prezflipflops) 5 сентября 2017 г.
Introducing #PresidentFlipFlops: Electoral College Edition. pic.twitter.com/eqmyOXjZPZ
On November 14, 2016, mere days after his surprising victory, Trump wrote that "the Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play."
"Campaign is much different!" he wrote.
In any case, Trump maintained his position that the Electoral College is an institution more beneficial for the Democrats than for Republicans.
"The Democrats lost an election, which, frankly, they should have been able to win, because the Electoral College is much more advantageous for Democrats, as you know, than it is to Republicans," Trump said during 2018 summit in Helsinki.
In 2016, however, Trump said, "Remember, don't believe ‘sources said' by the VERY dishonest media. If they don't name the sources, the sources don't exist."
In fact, reliance on "anonymous sources" has persisted as a widespread problem since the height of the fake news outbreak just a couple years ago.
Morrison has printed the tweets onto each and every pair of flip-flops by hand. He also packed them himself.
Printing and packaging. Orders shipping out! pic.twitter.com/Op6K6RCDxH
— President Flip Flops (@prezflipflops) 21 сентября 2017 г.
"I hand-printed all 1,000 pairs with a heat press, packaged and shipped everything myself, so it was a very time-intensive project," Morrison told Business Insider.
He also said he donated 10 percent of all sales to the American Civil Liberties Union. The sandals were sold at $30 for pair, according to the Insider.
