This is not parody.
Donald Trump is really doing this. It isn't something done in his name, or for him. Trump is all in, personally.
Official Donald Trump Digital Trading cards
Yesterday, when I began to prepare this blog post, images of superhero Trump were available to buy for $99 each. There were apparently a hundred different images, and there were an unreported number of each of those images.
Trump's creation of these cards is a new level of grandiloquent grift, but that is only half of the over-the-top Trump-ness of the story. The other half is that overnight they sold out.
The video at CollectTrumpCards.com begins with Donald Trump saying:
Hello, this is Donald Trump. Hopefully your favorite president of all time, Better than Lincoln, Better than Washington. I'm doing my first Official Donald J. Trump NFT collection right here and right now. . . .
People snapped up images like these:
Two observations:
One is that there is no level of over-the-top self-promotion for Trump. There is no limit to his willingness to monetize his supporters. There is no top so there is no over. Trump is beyond parody. Could he sell toenail clippings gathered from Mar-a-Lago staff, and call them his own, and sell them? I think he could.
The second is better understanding why Republican candidates choose to destroy their own campaigns by clinging to Trump. The close-at-home case on point for me is why a nonpartisan Medford, Oregon mayor, a career police officer, and a Republican candidate for Oregon state senate would choose to lose a winnable election. Randy Sparacino only needed to say that he wasn't totally Trump-blind and that he didn't agree with a wild proposition announced by local Republican party officers who called Biden an illegitimate president. He could have won with a mumble that gave local voters some glimmer that Sparacino was not drinking Trump Kool Aid. He didn't do it.
The explanation is in the "sold out" notice. The votes he might have won by showing himself to be a reasonable, fact-based, supporter of orderly government might well be overwhelmed by the votes he would risk within the Trump-supporting GOP electorate. Sparacino isn't stupid. He wasn't trying to lose. He was trapped by his GOP voters and by the GOP state leadership that paid for his million-dollar campaign. Too many of them don't think Trump posing in a cowboy duster or superhero costume and calling himself greater than Lincoln and Washington is laughable and weird.
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12 comments:
How many did you buy? When people show you who they are- believe them.
These probably were purchased by the same people who gave money to the PTL Club, starring Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker (Praise The Lord; People That Love).
Another possibility is that the now infamous NYC/FL crime family bought a huge portion of them to make them appear valuable, or just lied about the sale.
Okay, so this is so ridiculous that I actually held out hope for just a moment that Trump is making fun of himself, and trolling his critics in the process.
Then hope died as I took more of it all in. It's still really funny. And sad.
The one where he's doing the Clark Kent turn, changing from business suit to superhero, with eye-rays? It looks like he's giving himself am atomic wedgie.
Has he made a deal with the Pillow Guy to put his face and fake body on sheets and towels? The Pillow Guy also can make Trump Family slippers. It would be awesome to see PG selling Trump family merchandise on tv in his usual manic presentation style.
Perhaps the cards didn’t actually sell out, but have been listed as sold out to generate buzz about the level of popular support for Donald Trump.
This scam is original, you have to give them that, and I suspect the first of many similar takeoffs on the NFT fad. I'd be curious to know who the genius was who came up with it. Can you imagine any other celeb doing something like this and having it work? Maybe Oprah.
Sold out? That suggests that buyers consider them investments. We'll see. The obvious problem is that we'll very soon see counterfeits everywhere. T-shirts, etc. Not to mention the memes...oh the memes!
Interesting that the owners apparently will only have a link to their purchase so they can view it but won't have a downloadable file, so they really don't own anything but a promise. So very Trumpian.
Here's one cute twist:
"You have the ability to trade or sell your Trump Digital Trading Card directly with your friends or on any secondary marketplace that accepts Polygon-based NFTs/digital collectibles.
On each secondary sale of a Trump Digital Trading Card, there will be a 10% royalty on the sale price that will be paid back to the creator."
If in fact they are sold out it generated 4.5 million.
I'll leave it to others to speculate on the psychological pathology, but...WOW!
Trump’s virtual (imaginary) trading cards are an equally insane response to DeSantis’ campaign ad: “And on the eighth day…God made a fighter.” What’s interesting is that Republicans were largely silent when Trump demanded we suspend the Constitution, but now are beginning to realize how crazy he is. Imagine all the grief they could have saved the nation if they had realized it when he bragged about grabbing pussy.
Here's the bad news: Trump is the self-proclaimed Chosen One and an imaginary superhero. DeSantis is the self-proclaimed Fighter Sent by God, now pandering to the GOP's anti-vaxxer base. One of these whack jobs is the likely 2024 Republican nominee for our nation’s highest office. What the hell happened to the once-Grand Old Party?
I am surprised that one of the cards does not have him hanging on a cross with a crown of thorns. Seriously, it will not surprise me if the next step is the deification of Trump. Trump portrayed as the second coming of Jesus. The Trump Organization becoming a 501c3. Lots of folks happy to shed their dollars into those collection plates. And Don Jr and Eric could be bishops of the Trump Church. It sounds far fetched, but as Peter posits, there is no top to be over!
I think a lot of Republicans are getting tired of his act. New polls out have DeSantis leading him by as much as 20 points. A couple of Trumpers I know now have abandoned Trump in favor of DeSantis. I don't know if DeSantis will be the nominee, but the Trump Factor is losing its luster and Republicans are beginning to look elsewhere. There will always be loyal Trumpers, but they are slowly eroding away and won't be that much of a factor in 2 years. Trump will keep his namecalling act, but it won't be as effective as before. Others will challenge him.
Then there's all the lawsuits he has to avoid. I don't know what will happen there, but it will tie up his campaign and be a drag on his fundraising. I doubt he would ever go to jail, as most of us would for the things he did, but I expect heavy fines that he will have to pay. That will hurt.
I think it's interesting that he's in the news these days far more than Biden. However, it's mostly for the horrible things he does and did.
Therefore, I proclaim him The Most Interesting Man in the World. Or should it be Notorious?
Oprah is not tacky, super greedy and an unpatriotic traitor and malignant narcissist. Very, very insulting. She also is a black, female journalist by trade, the profession he hates most.
Oprah also is an extremely successful businesswoman, humanitarian and philanthropist who came from practically nothing, compared to his majesty the dumpster fire. Her father is/was a barber with a small shop in Nashville.
A bit more about Oprah Winfrey's life story (if interested), which is so vastly different from The Donald's (ugh).
Oprah was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a single teenage mother. Oprah was molested as a child and teen, and became pregnant at age 14. Oprah went to live with her father when she was a teen. She graduated from Tennessee State University, a HBCU. The rest is history.
Donald J. Trump is no Oprah Winfrey. Oprah has brains, a soul, a heart and class.
From today's WSJ:
WASHINGTON—Donald Trump‘s digital trading cards quickly sold out, according to their promotional website, generating more than $4 million. But none of it will go toward his presidential campaign that had a rocky first month, and the idea drew continued ridicule from some fellow Republicans Friday.
44,000 were sold in one day...
Even worse was the fine print:
What a stupid, money grabbing idea!
Even his loyal followers think it's a stupid money grab.
Owning a card gives you a chance to win an opportunity to attend a Trump event.
Reading the fine print tells the details.
Card owner, if selected, offers you the opportunity to attend a Trump event at Mara Lago or other properties. The selected "winners" will be notified 30 days in advance, but, they must pay all their own expenses to attend - travel lodging, and incidentals. They get the opportunity to be in the same room with Trump along with the hundreds or thousands others in the room that accommodates up to 3000 people. You will not get an opportunity to actually meet Trump.
The more cards you buy, the better the odds of being invited.
Further, while you can resell this digital asset, the Trump organization gets 10% of the selling price.
Let's all hope this is another nail in the Trump coffin, as it's nothing but a money grab from people who don't know any better.
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