Trump Is Mad the Media Won’t Call Him a ‘Nice Guy’ for Conning Supporters With Digital Trading Cards
Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was off to a rocky start when he announced last December that he’d soon be making a “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT.” The big news turned out to be the release of a genuinely bizarre superhero-themed NFT collection featuring digital renderings of the former president dressed up as an astronaut, red-carpet celebrity, and a series of other absurd characters. The release was widely panned, even by Trump’s closes allies.
Trump’s campaign seems to be doing a little better now, which is as good of a reason as any for him to try to bilk his supporters into giving him money in exchange for digital trading cards. “I am pleased to inform you that, due to the great success of my previously launched DIGITAL TRADING CARDS, we are doing it again, SERIES 2, AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW,” he announced Tuesday on Truth Social.
Series 2 is no less embarrassing than the first NFT batch. It includes images of Trump as a bow hunter decked out in camouflage, as an Elvis-inspired rock star, as Washington crossing the Delaware, as a guy in an American flag apron grilling hot dogs next to a black lab, and more. Have a look:
The cards are on sale for $99, and Trump has preemptively attacked the media for failing to praise him as a “nice guy” for not jacking up the price after the first set sold out. “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,” the former president griped. “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 is running to be the 47th president of the United States, and so is promising to have dinner with anyone who buys 47 cards. The whole enterprise, like most of Trump’s enterprises, reeks of grift — especially considering Trump has a long history of teasing potential small-dollar donors with similar meals and then not appearing to deliver.
The second series of tacky digital trading cards will probably sell out like the first one did given that Trump has cultivated a cult out of millions of Americans ready to give their money to the wealthy con artist they’ve been duped into thinking gives a shit about them. He’s a man who is also running for president despite multiple criminal cases over his potentially illegal financial dealings, and who has convinced his followers that this legal peril somehow makes him even more qualified to represent their interests. He wants them to vote him into the White House for a second time, but first — and perhaps even more — he wants them to spend $99 for a digital image of himself wearing American-flag chaps as he plays an electric guitar atop a motorcycle.