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# A Jewish Museum Is Selling Out of Its “YO SEMITE” Shirts Since Trump’s Blunder
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-jewish-museum-is-selling-out-of-its-yo-semite-shirts-since-trumps-blunder/
- Published: 2020-08-11T21:26:44.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:38:52.000Z
- Description: The National Museum of American Jewish History’s Yosemite-inspired shirt has garnered over $30,000 in sales since the president mispronounced the national park’s name.
- Author: Sarah Rose Sharp
- Tags: News, Donald Trump, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/b4944981-d22e-4eed-89ee-b85a2ca6181c.jpg)

This month, the nation finds itself at the odd intersection of nature-lovers, Trump-haters, and Judaica, when the idiot president [mispronounced “Yo-semite”](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/510501-trump-struggles-with-pronouncing-yosemites-at-bill-signing?ref=hyperallergic.com) during a speech introducing a piece of conservation legislation and inadvertently [granted a major boon](https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2020/08/07/trump-yo-semite-shirts-national-museum-american.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) to the [National Museum of American Jewish History](https://judaicashop.net/default.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com).

> VIRAL MOMENT: President Trump has trouble pronouncing 'Yosemite.' [pic.twitter.com/nkMAev0udW](https://t.co/nkMAev0udW?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — The Hill (@thehill) [August 4, 2020](https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1290702421380018177?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

The NMAJH has offered a [sequoia-themed “YO SEMITE” t-shirt](https://judaicashop.net/p-2426.aspx?searchEngineName=yo-semite-cotton-t-shirt&ref=hyperallergic.com) for proud tree-hugging Hebrews and friends since 2011, averaging about 100 sales a year, according to reporting by [the Hill](https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/511173-trumps-mispronunciation-of-yosemite-brings-30k-in-sales-to?ref=hyperallergic.com). Those sales skyrocketed in the days following this latest presidential mistake, with the museum moving some 1,500 shirts last week, yielding around $30,000 in profits. While it’s unlikely that Trump’s obvious lack of knowledge possessed by most fifth-graders won’t lose him any support among his diehard fanbase, surely his neo-Nazi white-power demographic will be horrified to learn that the president has raised tens of thousands of dollars for a Jewish institution.

> Love the shirt! Get your own here: [https://t.co/PGNaXqbiwi](https://t.co/PGNaXqbiwi?ref=hyperallergic.com) [pic.twitter.com/kBWIC06iKw](https://t.co/kBWIC06iKw?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — National Museum of American Jewish History (@NMAJH) [August 7, 2020](https://twitter.com/NMAJH/status/1291852205020962816?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

The museum has been struggling since filing for [Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection](https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2020/03/02/national-museum-of-american-jewish-history-files.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) in early March, saying that it has had “untenable debt” since its opening in 2010\. It owes money to between 200 and 999 creditors, with the five largest creditors being owed at least $20,000 each. Thanks to the ardent support of President Trump, the National Museum of American Jewish History will live to fight another day, bringing facts to the historic record and wordplay to the masses.

> Can’t really say we saw this one coming! 😅 [https://t.co/VbaHLUspWd](https://t.co/VbaHLUspWd?ref=hyperallergic.com)  
>  
> — National Museum of American Jewish History (@NMAJH) [August 9, 2020](https://twitter.com/NMAJH/status/1292499638474301440?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hyperallergic.com)

“It just keeps gathering momentum,” Kristen Kreider, the museum’s director of retail and visitor experience, told the[*Philadelphia Business Journal*](https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2020/08/07/trump-yo-semite-shirts-national-museum-american.html?ref=hyperallergic.com). “I just keep thinking, ‘Okay, this is going to be over in the next couple of hours. It’ll die down,’ and it doesn’t. It just keeps on going, and we’ll take it.”

Not since the Beastie Boys have slang-slanging Jewish people been so on the cutting edge of cultural discourse. As we begin the long, reflective preparation for High Holidays, all signs indicate that 5781 is going to be a big year!

![](https://media.giphy.com/media/n3xl0DwarKsxi/giphy.gif)