How Craftivism Is Making a Political Comeback Under Trump 2.0

“Back in 2017, I made a ton of pussyhats,” Catherine Paul told me. “I just knitted pink hats like there was no tomorrow.” At the time, Paul appreciated “the way that craft could be part of a demonstration of affiliation and belief,” the artist, writer, and longtime knitter recalled. Soon, the pussyhat became a symbol of a specific brand of feminism—one attuned to the concerns of a subset of middle-class, mostly white American women. By 2024, the hats and the 2017 Women’s March were being held up as examples of ineffective protest. Worse, they were seen as cringe—exclusionary and embarrassing.

Then came Trump 2.0. In the face of an administration whose agents have kidnapped and deported children and shot more than a dozen people in just a few months, craftivism is back in the spotlight. Knitters, quilters, nail artists, and others are receiving renewed public attention for their political designs.

Paul, for example, has been knitting red “Melt the ICE” hats, following a pattern sold by Minneapolis yarn shop Needle Skein. Friends and acquaintances are begging her for the headwear, just as they did nearly a decade ago.

Before reporting this story, I thought the rise of knitted and quilted protest under Trump 2.0 might signal the left reembracing cringe—softening toward forms of political action once deemed uncool and annoying (and, not coincidentally, feminine). But after speaking with artists and scholars about craftivism, I’ve come to see the explanation for its popularity as both more complicated and simpler.

“The news is so ugly all the time, you can’t really find peace,” said Gilah Mashaal, owner of Needle Skein. “So what do you do? You find people and you do things with those people. And since we’re crafters, that’s what we’re doing.”

As thousands of ICE agents swarmed Minneapolis earlier this year, Mashaal’s regular knitters were all feeling kind of desperate and unsure of what we could do, she said. Employee Paul Neary had the idea to create a pattern inspired by Norwegian anti-Nazi hats called “nisselue.” Neary posted the “Melt the ICE” hat pattern on knitting website Ravelry in January, charging $5 per download, with all proceeds going to immigrant aid agencies.

Mashaal recalls the Needle Skein team thinking, “maybe we’ll raise a couple thousand dollars.” Instead, the pattern quickly rocketed to the top of Ravelry’s most-popular list, where it remains. People from 44 countries have purchased it, generating at least $720,000 for immigrant aid groups, Mashaal told me.

Meanwhile, at this year’s QuiltCon—billed as the largest modern quilting event in the world—anti-ICE quilts grabbed attention, bearing messages like, “Our government abducted hundreds of people based on race while I made this.” Anti-ICE quilts are also gaining traction on Reddit, where one user recently shared a quilt.