{"id":448,"date":"2026-06-15T21:09:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=448"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:09:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:09:54","slug":"how-bud-light-won-back-maga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=448","title":{"rendered":"How Bud Light Won Back MAGA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On April 4, 2023, Kid Rock donned a white MAGA hat, blasted three cases of Bud Light with an AR-15-style rifle, flipped his left middle finger and shouted \u201cfuck Bud Light, fuck Anheuser-Busch!\u201d into a camera<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Read more UFC\u2019s Dana White Denounces Fighter\u2019s Comments About Michelle Obama<\/a><\/p>\n

The hail of bullets punctuated a full-on crisis for the beer brand and its parent company, as conservatives launched a Bud Light boycott over its \u201cwoke\u201d advertising deal with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.<\/p>\n

While Bud Light\u2019s return from MAGA oblivion shocked<\/u><\/span> more than a few Trump supporters, the brand\u2019s prominent play at what Trump described as \u201cone of the most exciting days in the history of our fabled White House\u201d was in part a product of Anheuser-Busch\u2019s unblinking commitment to its long-game political influence efforts.<\/p>\n

That push \u2014 marked by increased lobbying and a new approach to campaign donations \u2014 extended directly into the brand\u2019s relationship with Trump\u2019s beloved UFC.<\/p>\n

In October 2023, while still reeling from declining sales related to the Bud Light boycott, Anheuser-Busch inked<\/u><\/span> a reported nine-figure, multiyear deal for Bud Light to become UFC\u2019s official beer, buttressed<\/u><\/span> by a television ad campaign featuring football \u2014 another Trump<\/u><\/span> obsession<\/u><\/span> \u2014 and patriotic themes.<\/p>\n

The UFC deal coincided<\/u><\/span> with Trump turbocharging his presidential campaign efforts by filing for New Hampshire\u2019s first-in-the-nation primary and emerging as the clear front-runner<\/u><\/span> to win the 2024 Republican nomination.<\/p>\n

It also immediately followed Trump personally attending the UFC 287 event of April 2023<\/u><\/span> in Miami and the UFC 290 event of July 2023<\/u><\/span> in Las Vegas. During both fights, Trump appeared with longtime supporter and UFC President Dana White.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know he\u2019s one of my very good friends,\u201d White told<\/u><\/span> the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time about Trump.<\/p>\n

Trump, for his part, began signaling<\/u><\/span> in early 2024 that Bud Light might be on the path toward redemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance? What do you think?\u201d Trump said in a February 2024 post on his social media platform, Truth Social, while citing several company actions \u2014 spending on American farms, employing Americans, scholarships for military families \u2014 he deemed redeeming.<\/p>\n

Back in Washington, Anheuser-Busch busied itself in other ways that might appeal to Trump.<\/p>\n

For example, the company\u2019s political action committee, which had donated a nearly even amount of money to Democratic and Republican candidates during the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles, tilted toward Republicans during the 2024 election cycle, according to<\/u><\/span> federal campaign finance data compiled by nonprofit research organization OpenSecrets.<\/p>\n

Read more Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Trump Is Using the DOJ to Target Him and His Wife<\/a><\/p>\n

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light, also spent more than $5 million each year on federal lobbying efforts in 2023, 2024 and 2025. That represents three of the company\u2019s four most expensive annual lobbying campaigns of all time, according to federal lobbying records.<\/p>\n

The White House ranked among the company\u2019s lobbying targets on topics that included tariffs and \u201ccompetition in the beer industry,\u201d federal records<\/u><\/span> indicate.<\/p>\n

During the first three months of 2026, Anheuser-Busch spent $1.43 million<\/u><\/span> on federal lobbying efforts, putting it on an early pace toward its biggest one-year federal lobbying effort in history.<\/p>\n

All the while, Republicans in Congress began growing increasingly quiet about Bud Light, their once-incessant social media posts and television news rants of 2023 fading as time passed.<\/p>\n

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), in September 2024, was the last member of Congress to insert a discouraging word about Bud Light into the Congressional Record when she warned that the \u201cfinal frontier of the woke mind virus is the banks and capitalism themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In doing so, Foxx offered up a Wall Street Journal review of author Charles Gasparino\u2019s book \u201cGo Woke, Go Broke,\u201d which argued that \u201cMiddle America revolted\u201d against Bud Light for its wokeness and \u201cstopped buying the beer, heretofore branded as a manly beverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to questions about Bud Light\u2019s participation at the UFC event, a White House official emailed: \u201cUFC funded and paid for this entire event. \u2026 The White House has not been involved in any cost negotiations or sponsorship discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives for Anheuser-Busch did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t expect Trump\u2019s UFC fight to be the last time Washington is peppered with Anheuser-Busch messaging.<\/p>\n

The company this month said<\/u><\/span> its \u201ciconic Budweiser Clydesdales\u201d will appear at a \u201cvariety\u201d of events on and around July 4 in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Anheuser-Busch\u2019s marketing and influence tack is \u201ca back-to-the-base move, and it tracks the main lesson from the boycott research: know your core customer,\u201d said Song Yao, a marketing professor at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.<\/p>\n

\u201cBud Light\u2019s trouble was that it sat in the political middle, where any stance alienates the other half. Leaning into sports and patriotism re-anchors it with the drinkers it lost. As damage control, it\u2019s sensible,\u201d Yao said. \u201cBut this space is crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump, Iran Official Sign Iran Deal Framework<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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