'Made in China': pro-Trump company slapped with hefty fine for false claim its apparel was made in America

08 August 2022

Lions Not Sheep, a company based in Utah, manufactures pro-Donald Trump, MAGA-themed t-shirts, hats and other items — and the company used made-in-the USA” claims to promote its brand. But according to Mediaite reporter Sarah Rumpf, Lions Not Sheep has “agreed to pay a $211,335 fine to the Federal Trade Commission after it was busted removing ‘Made in China’ tags and replacing them with ones claiming the items were made in the U.S.”

“The website and social media for the company include lots of patriotic imagery to peddle t-shirts, hats, and other items with a variety of messaging, including portraying former President Donald Trump as a Terminator-like figure and slogans like ‘GIVE VIOLENCE A CHANCE,’” Rumpf reports. “An Instagram post from last month showed Lions Not Sheep owner Sean Whalen wearing a shirt that says ‘SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED’ as he swings around a bat printed with the company name and wrapped in what looks like barbed wire.”

Lions Not Sheep’s products, she notes, “promote a pro-Second Amendment message, oppose COVID-19 restrictions, and so on.

“Unsurprisingly, Lions Not Sheep also sells multiple items with ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ and ‘FJB’ on them, euphemisms for ‘F*** Joe Biden,’” Rumpf explains. “The prevalent color scheme on many of Lion Not Sheep’s products are a patriotic red-white-and-blue, and they’ve been shipping a free copy of the U.S. Constitution with every order. But the ‘Made in the USA’ labels were a fraud, the FTC found, finalizing an order against Lions Not Sheep and owner Whalen for ‘falsely claiming that its imported apparel is Made in USA,’ when it was actually made in China and other countries. In a press release, the FTC announced the $211,335 fine imposed on Whalen and his company, and summarized the order’s other requirements to ‘stop making bogus Made in USA claims’ and ‘come clean about foreign production.’”

The FTC’s press release was published on July 28.

“It seems that Whalen’s own social media posts helped get his company into hot water,” Rumpf observes. “The report by the Deseret News noted that Lions Not Sheep’s website had claimed they used ‘white labeling,’ or buying raw materials from foreign countries to assemble them in the U.S., but Whalen himself bragged about ripping out the ‘made in China’ tags:

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