Trump wears a new ‘Happy Trump’ lapel pin, but insists he’s never happy

U.S. President Donald Trump wears a gift, which he calls a "Happy Trump" pin, during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump insists he’s never happy. But now he has a lapel pin that is.

The president sported a tiny version of himself on his suit’s lapel Friday, under the miniature American flag pin he and other presidents have traditionally worn.

“Somebody gave me this. Do you know what that is? That’s called a Happy Trump,” the president said when a reporter asked about the accessory during an event in the White House East Room with oil executives discussing future U.S. control of Venezuela’s energy industry.

The pin features Trump with a cartoonishly large head and open-mouthed expression that some online immediately said looked like a bobblehead version of the president. Trump didn’t say who gave him the pin.

“Considering the fact that I’m never happy, I’m never satisfied,” the president continued, holding out his lapel and looking down at the pin, then looking back at reporters with a playful smirk. “I will never be satisfied until we make America great again, but we’re getting pretty close, I tell you what. This is called a Happy Trump.”

Trump wore a pin with the same design at least once before, during a ceremony in February to swear in Tulsi Gabbard as his Director of National Intelligence — though he didn’t comment on it then.

Online searching revealed a Trump lapel pin featuring what appears to be the same design — bundled together with a pin imposing an American flag over an outline of a U.S. map — available for sale on Amazon for US$9.99.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. presidents have generally worn an American flag pin on their lapels. Former President Joe Biden occasionally added his own flourish, sometimes wearing a pin featuring an American flag crossed with a Ukraine one to show his support for that country in its war with Russia.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama was criticized while first running for president in 2007 when he said he’d no longer wear a flag pin because he said doing so had become a substitute for “true patriotism.” But Obama resumed the practice the following year, when a veteran handed him one at a Pennsylvania town hall, prompting the candidate to immediately don it to cheers from attendees.

Friday’s was not the first Trump likeness to pop up on a lapel pin in Washington.

In April, Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Commissions Commission, wore a small gold medallion fashioned in the shape of Trump’s profile as a lapel pin. It could be seen in Carr’s post on X about a meeting on Capitol Hill with Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter.

Will Weissert, The Associated Press