The former president, amid all of his many legal troubles, this week unveiled a second series of non-fungible tokens. Even some supporters of the president were critical of the move.
Donald Trump Strikes Again?
Last December, former President Donald Trump teased a “special announcement,” which turned out to be a new line of Trump-themed digital trading cards, or NFTs. Available for $99 each, they pictured Trump incorporated into various types of American iconography, such as Trump in a boxing ring, as a race car driver, as an astronaut, and more.
There was some mockery of the enterprise, which appeared to come at the tail end of the NFT craze, and there were accusations of copyright infringement. The digital cards, however, did sell out of their original allotment.
Now, one indictment later, round two of the cards has been released.
Per CoinDesk, the second series of cards includes Trump holding the Liberty Bell, crossing the Delaware River like George Washington, standing at a barbecue grill with a dog, as a giant chess piece, and more. The release has also caused the price of the original series of cards to tank, the report said.
“These are just like baseball cards, but you collect them digitally, on your computer or phone. All you need is an email address and a credit card or crypto to start collecting 1, 10, 20 or 100. Instantly become part of a new league of collectors,” the website says, for the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar with the concept of NFTs.
The launch, per the New York Post, doubled as Trump’s return to Instagram. He had been banned from both that platform and its corporate sibling Facebook after January 6, but was brought back to both in January of this year, with “guardrails,” parent company Meta announced at the time. Trump has not yet returned to Twitter, despite Elon Musk reinstating his account late last year.
Trump claimed on Truth Social Tuesday that the new trading cards had sold out. He also claimed that he wasn’t being given credit for not raising the prices of the cards.
“I hope everyone notices, & I’m sure the Fake News won’t, that I’m leaving the price of the Trading Cards the same as last time, even though they are selling for MANY TIMES MORE (It’s called the MARKET!), & sold out almost immediately, because I want my fans & supporters to make money, & have fun doing it. I could have raised the price MUCH HIGHER, & I believe it still would have sold well, with a lot more money coming to me, but I didn’t choose to do so. I WILL BE GIVEN NO “NICE GUY” CREDIT?,” Trump said on the social network.
Trump’s sometimes-ally Steve Bannon ripped the idea of the trading cards when they were first launched in December, while one January 6 defendant even said “I can’t believe I’m going to jail for an NFT salesman.”
“It just seems humiliating and beneath him to be hustling action figure trading cards of himself,” GOP strategist Mike DuHaime told the Wall Street Journal in December. “He was president and a billionaire celebrity real-estate developer, and now he’s selling pictures of himself for 100 bucks.”
There has also been some backlash to the new series.
“I am a Trump supporter but these NFTs are just too much,” commentator Tomi Lahren said on Twitter Tuesday.
Journalist Molly Jong Fast called them “nightmare fuel.”
“I find the Trump NFTs absolutely fascinating in their ugliness,” writer Luke Savage said of the new edition. “They’re a pastiche drawn from the blandest stock images, stripped of all specificity. Just a kitsch and empty iconography of money, Americana, and machismo — all for images that only exist in the digital ether.”
Even Trump supporters got in the act.
“Trump hasn’t done sh** for the J6 defendants rotting in jail,” that same January 6 defendant said on Twitter. “It’s sad he’s too busy selling Pokémon cards to care.”
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
