Meet the mom running Trump's merchandising empire: From MAGA hats to mug shot shirts the mastermind behind the merch opens up about relationship with Donald

In mid-2015, Christl Mahfouz recovered herself successful a high-stakes gathering successful Trump Tower, pitching her run merchandising business to then-candidate Donald Trump. 

The Louisiana mother of 3 recounted nan nerve-wracking acquisition successful an question and reply pinch DailyMail.com astatine nan Republican National Convention, saying she walked into nan gathering 'so nervous' but pinch a clear imagination for products for illustration 'Women for Trump' and 'Veterans for Trump.' 

To her astonishment, Trump approved nan designs connected nan spot and asked Mahfouz really quickly she could get nan merchandise ready.

'I told him, 'Give maine a week, sir, and I'll beryllium fresh to go,'' Mahfouz said. 

That week-long turnaround kicked disconnected a successful business that has made her company, ACE Specialties, nan charismatic merchandiser for nan Trump run and nan Republican National Committee.

'So if you tin imagine, I locomotion into Trump Tower truthful nervous.'

'What a batch of group don't know, is that my institution was based successful Lafayette, Louisiana, and we were deed really difficult successful nan lipid industry, and I was really connected nan brink of losing everything,' Mahfouz recalled. 

The metropolis is simply a awesome hub for nan lipid manufacture and that twelvemonth prices for lipid plummeted dropping from astir $95 per tube successful June 2014 to conscionable $32 per tube by December 2015, according to U.S. national data.   

'And nan time that President Trump made his measurement down nan escalator [in 2015], these visions popped into my head, and it was for illustration women for Trump, veterans for Trump Team Trump, each of these logos,' nan Louisianan continued. 

So she 'put nan designs together, printed immoderate merchandise, sent it up to nan tower, and recovered myself location doing nan transportation of a life a fewer weeks later.'

'President Trump himself came down and he looked astatine everything,' Mahfouz said. 'He approved everything connected nan spot, and turned to maine and said, 'How accelerated tin you get this done?''

'I said, 'Give maine a week, sir, and I'll beryllium fresh to go.'

'So that day, I for illustration to opportunity nan MAGA marque was born,' she told DailyMail.com. 

She said nan 'MAGA' marque she helped create has go 'the astir iconic marque successful governmental history.'

But she does in installments Trump pinch coining nan word 'Make America Great Again,' which is nan bedrock motto of his governmental merchandising machine. 

Mafhouz said nan bestseller, by far, is nan original reddish MAGA hat. 

'I would opportunity that's decidedly his top design,' she said of nan notorious cap. 

Another apical seller were shirts and different memorabilia showcasing Trump's infamous mug changeable taken aft he was booked successful a Fulton County jailhouse successful August 2023. 

Recently, her merchandise featuring Trump and his precocious minted moving mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has been trading for illustration crazy. 

The logic she has sold truthful galore Trump-Vance products, Mahfouz said, is because she was 1 of nan first to beryllium capable to nutrient nan highly-anticipated merchandise.

'Well, erstwhile nan VP was announced, we had shirts present and buttons nan adjacent morning. So Trump-Vance 2024 is flying disconnected nan shelves.'

She told DailyMail.com that she contacted section schematic printers and designers successful Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wherever nan Republican National Convention (RNC) was held, truthful that she could get trading arsenic soon arsenic possible. 

Importantly, she notes, each of nan charismatic Trump and RNC charismatic products are American-made. 

'All of nan products we make are made correct present successful America,' Mahfouz said. 

'So not only has my institution survived, not only person we created jobs, but we've supported farming nan fabric manufacturing.'

'Every portion of each merchandise is made correct present successful America.'

Mahfouz said nan opportunity nan erstwhile president gave her changed everything. 

'It's been life-changing, not only for me, but you know, my labor and their families and everyone we support,' Mahfouz said. 

'I person 42 [employees], and they are dedicated and emotion nan mission. And, you know, we conscionable make it happen.'

She said Trump's adoring fans emotion nan products truthful overmuch because they are truthful firmly successful support of nan 45th president. 

'I deliberation there's truthful overmuch emotion and support for President Trump and excitement that everyone is conscionable happy to person a piece.'

'Happy to person a portion of history,' she added pinch a smile.