Trump NFT collection confounds crypto community and angers its supporters

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social a ‘big announcement’ which ultimately turned out to be advertising for an NFT-card collection featuring his likeness. The post perplexed the Bitcoin community and drew criticism from the politician’s supporters.

Trump Digital Trading Cards includes 45,000 collectible tokens, on which the former president appears in various guises, including a superhero with laser eyes. Each card is sold for $99. 

Buyers automatically become participants in prize drawings, including an autograph session and personal interaction with the politician via a Zoom call, over dinner, or a round of golf.

As of writing, all NFTs are sold out. Most are listed for secondary sale on OpenSea at a minimum price of 0.092 ETH (just over $110).

The most expensive token with Trump in a cape and a sheriff’s star is listed for auction at 100,000,000,000,000 ETH ($121 quadrillion).

According to an NFT-community representative under the nickname foobar, at the moment 35 wallets hold at least 45 NFTs entitling the holder to a dinner with Trump.

Some suspected that the scale of the advertising campaign could be a deepfake.

FWIW I have no idea if this is him or a really good deepfake

Yes we’re in this stage of the future now— Eric Wall (@ercwl) December 15, 2022

The site selling the NFT collection is owned by NFT INT LLC. In response to frequently asked questions, platform representatives stressed that the cards “do not belong to, are not managed by, and are not controlled by Donald Trump” or organizations affiliated with him. They also have no relation to any political campaign.

«We use Trump’s name, likeness and image under a paid license from CIC Digital LLC, the license of which may be terminated or revoked», — the statement said.

Twitter users also noted a line in the rules stating that participation in the sweepstakes does not require purchasing NFT. It is sufficient to send a letter to the organizer’s listed postal address.

No purchase necessary. One can enter the “sweepstakes here: 😂 😹 😂 Good Luck! pic.twitter.com/zAYo0IAflt— Mimi (@Mimifishin) December 15, 2022

Trump supporters expressed dissatisfaction with the post, arguing they expected a more serious statement from the former president.

Trump’s NFT announcement is flopping with the MAGA faithful. pic.twitter.com/sv5jUBeqvt— Will Sommer (@willsommer) December 15, 2022

«Chad… When all patriots are concerned about the country’s future, Trump stirs everyone up with a ‘big announcement,’ only to release a low-quality video featuring an NFT collection. Damn, this just turns people off», — they wrote.

Analyst Eric Wall compared the project with “SimpDAO”. The term emerged in the wake of influencer Irene Zhao’s NFT collection, which sold with tokens the right to a personal meeting with herself.

«Wait a minute. These NFT give you access to a community. A dinner with Trump. Golfing with Trump. Zoom calls. Private meetings. Autographs. These aren’t baseball cards. This is SimpDAO!»

“Ultra-right” streamer Baked Alaska also weighed in. In 2021 he streamed the Capitol riot by Trump supporters, for which he was later charged with federal offenses.

«Не могу поверить, что сяду в тюрьму из‑за продавца NFT», — твитнул он.

Opinions in the crypto community regarding the project are divided. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao expressed optimism about growing adoption of cryptocurrencies.

«Former U.S. President releases NFTs. And he didn’t like crypto before. We are getting there», — Zhao wrote.

In response, Bitcoin advocate and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey уточнил: «Where exactly are we getting closer to?».

Earlier, in January, Parler and artist John McNaughton announced a joint NFT-collection featuring images of Donald Trump.

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