TOPLINE The former president Donald Trump unveiled Thursday a “limited edition collection” of NFT trading cards with cartoon-like pictures of him as an actor, super-hero, Hollywood actor and more following a tease of an “major news announcement” via Twitter on his Truth Social account.
KEY FACTS
The trading cards, priced at $99 and available at collecttrumpcards.com, feature cartoon images of a particularly machismo Trump dressed in hunting gear, wearing a “DOW” hat with a surging stock ticker in the backdrop, playing golf, wearing sunglasses while standing in front of a “Trumpworld” sign, and more.
Alongside in addition to the NFTs, Trump announced a sweepstakes competition for a variety of prizes. These include dinner at the Taj Mahal in Miami with Trump and a golf trip with Trump as well as a one-on one meeting of Trump and memorabilia that was signed of the president who was his predecessor.
The announcement comes after Trump announced to the 4.73 million Truth Social followers on Wednesday “America needs a superhero,” while hinting at an “major announcement” that he promised to make on Thursday.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“GET YOUR CARDS NOW! Just $99 for each! It would make a wonderful gift for Christmas. Don’t Wait. They’ll disappear, I’m sure it will happen very fast!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
CONTRA
Trump enters into the NFT market in a tense period, with declining prices and a decrease in volume. NFT trading volume dropped 97 percent between the months of January and September of this year due to uncertainty regarding the stability of the market for digital assets as per data compiled by Bloomberg. The collapse in November that of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which was hosting NFTs and a number of other NFTs, has further hurt market NFT market.
KEY BACKGROUND
Trump has profited from the intensity of his fan base as well as their habit of publicly expressing their loyalty to the former president through flags, hats and clothes, yard signs, car stickers , and more by launching a marketplace of merchandise on the Trump Organization Website. Customers can buy foodstuffs packaged with Trump’s logo and cheese boards in his honor, ornaments that depict his properties , and an range of camo-printed Trump clothes. The red hats with Trump’s famous “MAGA” slogan became popular with his followers that they generated an average of $80,000 per day for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign at one time His son-in-law and his former White House adviser Jared Kushner wrote in his “Breaking History” memoir.
TANGENT
“The “major announcement” follows after an extremely difficult month for Trump who launched his third run for the presidency on the 15th of November. Recent polls this week indicated that Trump’s popularity with Republican people has dramatically diminished as well as a USAToday/Suffolk U survey that found that Republicans favor Republican Florida Governor. Ron DeSantis for president in 2024 over Trump by two-digit margins. Numerous prominent Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – blamed Trump as the reason for his party’s less than expected midterm performance. GOP leaders have also repeatedly criticized Trump for inviting racist white nationalist Nick Fuentes for dinner at Mar-A-Lago and declaring that the parts of the Constitution which he said hindered his to win the presidential 2020 race should be tossed out.
