Deep in conversation with his vice-president and his secretary of state, Donald Trump suddenly broke off and peered over the Resolute Desk. “Marco, JD, you guys have shitty shoes,” the president said, inspecting JD Vance and Marco Rubio’s feet.
Trump retrieved a catalogue and asked the two men vying to succeed him for their shoe size. Vance said 13 (a 12 in the UK), Rubio said 11.5.
“You can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size,” Trump added, leaning back in his chair.
Days later, Vance and Rubio were each presented with a pair of shiny Oxford dress shoes, kicking off a new trend within the Trump administration. In the following weeks a string of cabinet members, White House officials and visiting celebrities have also been gifted shoes by the president, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump has taken to pouncing on visitors to the Oval Office, insisting on guessing their shoe size in front of them. Cabinet meetings are frequently diverted by the president’s new footwear obsession. “Did you get the shoes?” he has enthusiastically asked colleagues.
A gift from the president – particularly this one – brings its own social pressure. “All the boys have them,” one female White House official told WSJ. “It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them,” said another.
That anxiety has left senior officials in some discomfort. Rubio has been spotted wearing shoes that appear too big, prompting suggestions the secretary of state may have overstated his 11.5 shoe size. One cabinet member has reportedly complained in private that Trump’s gift has forced him to abandon his preferred Louis Vuitton shoes for fear of offending the boss.
Trump’s brand of choice is Florsheim, founded in Chicago in the late-19th century by German immigrant Sigmund Florsheim, who had arrived in the US in 1850; Trump’s own family came from Germany a little more than three decades later. The brand was a favourite of former presidents including Harry Truman. Michael Jackson first performed the moonwalk wearing Florsheim loafers and stayed loyal to the brand throughout his 1980s pomp.
Unusually for the billionaire president known for Brioni power suits that cost upwards of $10,000, Florsheim dress shoes retail for a modest $145. Trump settled on the brand last year after searching for a more comfortable option for long days at the White House.
The pictures of Rubio in clownishly oversized shoes have been mocked by Democrats and puzzled Republican colleagues. “It’s another way to impose himself,” one Maga consultant said of Trump’s largesse. “Rubio can afford $145. Why doesn’t he buy the same shoes in a size that fit?”
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Trump denies that Florsheim shoes are mandatory for his cabinet, but says he buys the shoes for colleagues who complain about their uncomfortable footwear. “I have fun with it,” he told Fox News on Friday. “Seems to work out pretty well. Now they look all spiffy and nice.”
I have fun with it. Seems to work out pretty well. Now they look all spiffy and nice
I have fun with it. Seems to work out pretty well. Now they look all spiffy and nice
Donald Trump
Trump’s cabinet of billionaire financiers and real estate moguls is not known for sartorial daring. The exception is Pete Hegseth, secretary of war, who has become the administration’s de facto spokesman for the conflict with Iran.
A military veteran and former weekend host on Fox News, Hegseth has taken the trend in US politics for American flag accessories to extremes. At his confirmation hearing last year, he wore a stars and stripes pocket square, socks and belt buckle. In interviews, he has laid out his “three-flag rule”, a self-imposed commitment to wear at least three items depicting the US flag every day.
Hegseth provoked a diplomatic contretemps last year when he wore a red, blue and white-striped tie closely resembling the Russian flag to a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The White House brushed off the controversy but Hegseth’s style statement was welcomed by the Kremlin. Russia’s state news agency, Tass, said the secretary of war “stood out among the otherwise restrained attire of the US delegation” by wearing a “tie in the colours of the Russian tricolor”.
Hegseth’s fashion choices are routinely pilloried on social media. Derek Guy, the menswear writer, has taken aim at his criminal fondness for “fun socks”, “wacky” accessories and tan shoes with a dark suit. The Florsheim website, at time of writing, had crashed.
Photographs by Christopher Furlong/Pool/AFP via Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images