Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday teased a “major announcement” before disappointing just about everyone on Thursday by releasing a $99 digital trading card, The New York Times reports.
Trump launched an NFT collection of digital trading cards depicting him as a superhero, an astronaut, a sheriff and other figures.
Trump made his sales pitch in a video, declaring his four years in office “better than Lincoln, better than Washington.”
The website for the cards says buyers will be entered into a sweepstakes “for a chance to win 1000’s of incredible prizes and meet the one and only #45!”
The fine print adds that the total value of all the prizes is $54,695 but adds that a 20-minute meeting they can win with Trump is “priceless.”
It also adds that winners of the meetings will have to pay for their own travel and lodging.
Trump to pocket money:
Despite launching his presidential campaign weeks earlier, Trump’s campaign won't benefit from the stunt.
Trump will earn money from a licensing deal, which some of his aides have raised concerns about. They worry that the money could instead be used to help fund his campaign.
Though Trump raised over $100 million before his presidential announcement for his PACs, his campaign cannot use that money directly.
The company selling the cards, NFT INT, says that the company is “not owned, managed or controlled” by Trump and uses his name “under a paid license” with a company called CIC Digital, which was formed in April 2021 at the same address as the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
Backlash:
Even Trump’s fans cringed at the announcement.
"I can't watch it again, make it stop," Steve Bannon said on his podcast after playing the video. "Anybody on the comms team and anybody at Mar-a-Lago — and I love the folks down there — but we’re at war. They oughta be fired today."
"Whoever advised him on that, I'd fire him them immediately," said former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Baked Alaska, a far-right media personality who pleaded guilty to participating in the Capitol riot, tweeted, "i can’t believe i'm going to jail for an nft salesman."
