Tom Barrett wants you to know he's an America First guy. He talks about bringing factories back home. He talks about making things in the United States. His campaign even sells t-shirts to prove it.
There's just one problem with the shirts.
"Made in USA" — except it wasn't
Barrett's campaign website sells "Barrett Brigade" t-shirts featuring a Black Hawk helicopter, a nod to his service as an Army helicopter pilot. The product description says the shirts are "100% cotton" and "Made in USA."
But American Journal News found that the tag tells a different story. A photo of the actual shirt shows a label reading "made in Haiti." The blanks are made by Gildan, a Canada-based clothing company — not an American manufacturer.
So the "Made in USA" claim on the website isn't a stretch or a spin. It's just false. The shirt was made in another country, by a foreign company, and sold to supporters under an American-made label.
He says one thing and does another
This would be embarrassing for any candidate. For Barrett, it's worse — because "buy American" is supposed to be his whole brand.
In April 2026, Barrett toured a machine plant in Lansing and told reporters, "We really want to onshore more of our own manufacturing." He credited Trump's policies for the push. That's the message: bring the jobs home, make it here.
Meanwhile, he was selling campaign merch made in Haiti and calling it American.
And it fits a pattern with Barrett — saying the popular thing and then doing the opposite:
- He promised to protect Michigan farmers from the damage of Trump's tariffs, then voted six times to protect those tariffs anyway — even as small Michigan retailers got squeezed.
- He signed a letter urging leaders not to cut Medicaid — then voted for the cuts.
- He promised not to cut Social Security or Medicare — then voted for hundreds of billions in Medicare cuts.
The t-shirt is small. But it's the same move every time. Barrett figures out what voters want to hear, says it, and then quietly does something else.
Who actually made the shirts
There's a human cost behind that "made in Haiti" tag, too. Gildan, the manufacturer, has faced serious criticism over how it treats workers. According to the reporting, the company fired 64 striking workers in Port-au-Prince in 2023 after they protested over unpaid overtime, and earlier coverage documented Haitian Gildan employees who couldn't afford basic living expenses.
So while Barrett tells Michigan voters he wants to bring good jobs back to America, his own campaign was profiting off low-wage work overseas — and slapping a "Made in USA" label on it.
The contrast voters will notice
Barrett is running for a second term, and his Democratic challengers have lined up labor union endorsements. Barrett has not. That's a telling gap for a man who keeps talking about American workers and American manufacturing.
It's easy to print "Made in USA" on a shirt. It's a lot harder to actually vote and act like you mean it. Barrett did the easy part. On the hard part — the votes, the record, even the truth about where his own merch comes from — he keeps falling short.
We deserve a representative who tells us the truth, all the way down to the label.
Source
This post is based on reporting by American Journal News.
