Could children on the playground soon be trading their favourite Donald Trump cards? Probably not, to be honest.
But the former US president is now offering a fourth collection of nonfungible tokens – or NFTs – for the low price of $99 (about £75) a card.
One, captioned the ‘Greatest of all time,’ shows Trump sternly holding the presidential seal. He’s an Iron Man-styled ‘SuperTrump’ in the next.
A ‘limited edition’ card is of Trump, the self-proclaimed ‘bitcoin president’, wielding a lightning bolt. Clearly keen to show he’s a crypto-friendly president, in a second trading card he’s caressing a big Bitcoin ball.
Trump’s ‘official debate card’ comes with a torn piece of the Republican’s suit glued to a physical print of the card. ‘His knockout performance resulted in a decisive victory, dramatically shifting the course of the presidential race,’ a description on the Collect Trump Cards website reads.
‘Historians will be talking about this debate for years to come.’
US President Joe Biden’s performance in the televised June 27 debate saw his approval ratings plummet, eventually stepping aside and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris.
Trump announced the new batch of trading card packets on Truth Social, his social media website, yesterday.
‘Back by popular demand,’ Trump said, ‘my Trump Digital Trading Cards, Series four: The America First Collection, is available right now and I think you’ll love it!
‘For some, there’ll be an invite to a Gala Dinner at my beautiful private club in Jupiter, Florida.
‘Don’t wait, have fun – The Cards will go FAST!’
NFTs basically allow a person to claim ownership of a digital asset. Each has a unique identifying code, so rather than a framed painting on a wall, the owner has a digital file.
Trump started selling the cards in December 2022 and sold out within a day. Trump’s campaign isn’t pocketing any money from the profits, according to the website. A release said the venture has generated about $4.6million.
Instead, Trump is getting a cut of the cash under a licensing deal. The company that flogs the cards is the Delaware-based NFT INT L.L.C which ‘uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Digital LLC’.
Incentives to purchase cards include being entered into sweepstakes where buyers are randomly picked to go golfing at one of Trump’s properties or meet him over Zoom.
Buying 15 NFTs gets you a physical printout of a card, while 75 in a single transaction bags you a dinner date with Trump. Buyers might get a pair of autographed shoes.
That, or as Trump described in an accompanying video on Truth Social, ‘we’ll be randomly autographing five of them, a true collector’s item, this is something to give your family, your kids, your grandchildren’.
Trump, who once called crypto a scam, has increasingly targeted Bitcoin lovers in his bid to be re-elected as US president in November.
He vowed in July at a conference for the digital current to turn the States into ‘the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world’.
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