Is presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis selling a "Make America Florida" hat? No, that's not true: This hat is not available on DeSantis' official online store. A separate shop that is not officially associated with DeSantis' campaign is selling the hat. The separate shop has a disclaimer that states the site is "Not Authorized by any Candidate or Candidate's Committee."
The claim appeared on Twitter (archived here) on May 23, 2023. The tweet read:
Actual Ron Desantis merchandise. His campaign is gonna flame out so fucking hard he should be sued for electoral fraud
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
The tweet does not give any evidence that this hat is sold by DeSantis' online store.
The "DeSantis for President" official online shop can be found here. There are multiple hats available for sale, but none are the hat seen in the tweet.
The site where the hat is for sale is makeamericaflorida.shop. Here is a screenshot of the hat for sale:
(Source: Makeamericaflorida.shop screenshot taken on Wed May 31 15:41:44 2023 UTC)
Although there is a "DeSantis 2024" logo in the upper left-hand corner, a disclaimer at the bottom left of the makeamericaflorida.shop site reads:
Show your support for America's Best Governor, Ron DeSantis with Make America Florida - DeSantis 2024 merchandise. Make America Florida 2024 is Not Authorized by any Candidate or Candidate's Committee.
Here is a screenshot of the disclaimer:
(Source: Makeamericaflorida.shop screenshot taken on Wed May 31 15:47:27 2023 UTC)
More Lead Stories articles on claims concerning DeSantis are here.
