Trump is obsessed by shoes made by a company that sued him over tariffs

Fashion isn’t usually a topic of conversation in Washington, a city as obsessed with politics and power as it is uninterested in clothing as a vehicle for personal expression. This week, the exception came in the form of a pair of shoes that U.S. President Donald Trump is fascinated by.

They are Oxfords, with their classic shape and laces. They’re made by the American brand Florsheim, and its parent company, Weyco — which gained 6.42% on the stock market Wednesday — has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government for the damage to its accounts caused by Trump’s tariffs, given that they manufacture their products abroad.

The shoes are reasonably priced ($145) and the president buys them constantly. He also has a penchant for giving them away as gifts, according to The Wall Street Journal. As such, they’ve become a symbol of belonging to his club, which at times resembles a cult whose rules can be summed up in one: best not to cross him.

“All the boys have them,” an anonymous White House source told the Journal. “It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them,” joked another source in the article, which calls Trump “Shoe Salesman-in-Chief.”

The image that went viral after the story was published is a low-angle shot taken at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January. It shows, from right to left, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s negotiator and friend, and the Secretaries of Energy (Chris Wright), Commerce (Howard Luttnick), Treasury (Scott Bessent), and State (Marco Rubio), alongside the president. They all appear to be wearing the same black shoes. Some of them are multi-millonaires, likely unaccustomed to sporting such inexpensive footwear.

In another photo, Rubio, the only one on the list without a vast fortune to his name, is seen wearing what appear to be oversized Florsheim boots, because Trump estimated his size by eye. The Wall Street Journal’s revelation has also served another purpose: to remind everyone of the time the Latino politician wore Florsheim heeled boots during the 2016 election campaign. That year Rubio ran for president and his eventual opponent, the same man who is now his boss, called him “Little Marco.”

Footwear for all

Trump doesn’t just give Oxfords to members of his Cabinet. He has also ordered shoes, after personally guessing the foot size of the recipient, for Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, speechwriter Ross Worthington, and far-right media personality Tucker Carlson, who received a pair with pointed toes. According to the Journal, the boxes are piled up in an office at the presidential residence, and some are signed by Trump.

According to the New York-based newspaper, Thomas Florsheim, owner of the firm founded by one of his ancestors in 1892 and CEO of its parent company, Weyco, expressed surprise at Trump’s interest but declined to comment further. The story omits the fact that this Wisconsin-based company filed a lawsuit on December 1 with the U.S. Court of International Trade. Its executives objected to the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs — “reciprocal,” as he erroneously called them — on dozens of countries.

Weyco went to court anticipating what ultimately happened: that the Supreme Court would strike down Washington’s aggressive trade policy. In its complaint, the company accuses the White House of “unilaterally imposing tariffs on goods imported from any country in the world, calculated using any methodology — or on a mere whim — immediately, without prior notice, without public debate, without gradual implementation or delay, despite the enormous economic impacts that will likely cause serious damage to the global economy.”

Before this week’s popularity boost from the president and his allies, Florsheim told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the tariffs had forced the company — which estimates losses of $16 million due to the levies — to raise the price of its shoes by 10%. They can take some comfort in knowing that the price increase also affected the wallet of the person responsible for the damage, their most famous and one of their most loyal customers: Donald J. Trump.

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