Political adversaries of Donald J.

Trump have long accused him of behaving in a manner

consistent with that of a cartoon character. However recently the man who had previously
served as president of the United States went against all the expectations and literally turned
himself into a cartoon. But he did so with the intention of making a profit. Now how did Trump do
this and more importantly how will he make money out of this public move? Let’s explore this in
today’s video.

In his first significant public move since opening his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump
announced an online store to sell digital trading cards of himself as a superhero, an astronaut,
an Old West sheriff and a series of other fantastical figures. His pitch was presented in a brief
video in which he spoke directly to the camera. In the video, he brazenly asserted that his four
years in the White House were "better than Lincoln, better than Washington." "My official Donald
Trump Digital Trading Card collection is here!" he posted. Trump never used the abbreviation
"NFT" in the post, but that's indeed what the "digital trading cards" are: 45,000 NFTs on the
Polygon blockchain, priced at $99 each. All 45,000 sold out in around 12 hours, according to
OpenSea data. At $99 each, that means $4.45 million has been raised. The collection's creators
also receive 10% off every sale on secondary markets like OpenSea. Thus far traders have
spent $5.2 million or 4,442 ether trading the cards on OpenSea, netting creators an extra
$520,000. NFT traders never miss out on a good chance to speculate, leading to strong
secondary market performance for the collection. The cheapest Donald Trump Trading Card
NFTs are now selling for about $650, more than six times the original $99 asking price.

Some of Trump's advisers were confused by the sale of the trading cards, which he had
promoted the day before as a "major announcement" on his social media website, Truth Social.
Additionally, some other conservatives were critical of this decision of Trump's. Two Trump
supporters named Keith and Kevin Hodge, who are also stand-up comedians, posted the
following message on Twitter: "Whoever told Trump to do this should be fired." "I can't do this
anymore," Steve Bannon, a right-wing media commentator and former chief strategist for Mr
Trump, said about the sale on his podcast. Anyone involved in the project "ought to be fired
today," he added.
The price of the digital trading cards is significantly higher than the $20 contribution that Trump
frequently requests from his supporters. However, Trump's campaign will not make any money
off of the digital cards, which he compares to baseball cards but are actually nonfungible tokens,
also known as NFTs. These tokens allow a person to effectively claim ownership of a digital file.
Some of Trump's aides have acknowledged this fact and expressed concern about it. The
money that would have been earned from the digital cards will instead be pocketed by Trump
as part of a licensing deal. They are concerned that the move could reduce the number of
contributions of a few dollars or less made to his presidential campaign. To encourage
customers to purchase the cards, people are being offered entries into a series of sweepstakes
for the chance to meet Trump or play golf at one of his properties. Customers who purchase 45
cards have the opportunity to receive one ticket to a gala that will be held at a Trump resort in
South Florida. Thus far 202 people have more than 45 of the NFTs in their digital wallet,
according to Dune data.
In a video, President Trump can be heard saying, "I'll also be doing Zoom calls, one-on-one
meetings, autographing memorabilia, and so much more." Before making his announcement to
run for president, the former president had deposited a total of one hundred million dollars into
various political accounts; however, none of that money can be used to directly finance his
candidacy.

At the same time, Trump's aides disseminated, to an ally on Twitter, a video of the former
president in which he makes assurances about cracking down on online censorship if he
regains his old office. In the video, Trump says that he will reclaim his old office. However,
Trump's direct pitch for the trading cards highlighted how his presidential campaign has
appeared to take a back seat to his personal efforts over the course of the past month.
Republicans and even some Democrats spent a day speculating on what Trump might have
planned for his major announcement, assuming that it related to his campaign or even the race
for the speakership of the House. The shock that everyone felt when they heard the shocking
news was palpable.

According to the public records, the company that is selling the cards is called NFT INT L.L.C.,
and it was established in the state of Delaware in the month of February. The website for trading
cards has an address for the company that can be found to be matched up with a mailbox at a
UPS Store in Park City, Utah. According to the company's website, it states that it is "not owned,
managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump" and that it uses his name, likeness, and image
under paid license from a company called CIC Digital L.L.C. CIC Digital L.L.C. was established
in April 2021 at an address that corresponds to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm
Beach, Florida, according to public records. According to documents available to the public, the
directors of the business are Nick Luna, a former assistant to Trump and John Marion, one of
the former president's lawyers;

In a brief interview, Luna stated that CIC Ventures had been established in part to handle
Trump's paid speeches, but that he had not been involved with the company for more than a
year. Luna also mentioned that CIC Ventures had been established in part by him. The website
makes the claim that purchasers of the trading cards will be entered into a sweepstake "for a
chance to win 1000's of incredible prizes and meet the one and only #45!" In the site's fine print,
it is stated that the total value of all of the prizes is $54,695, but it also states that the dollar
value of a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago for twenty minutes is "priceless." It also indicates
that those who win face-to-face meetings will be responsible for covering their own travel and
lodging costs in order to visit Mar-a-Lago. Trump made the announcement about the trading
cards by saying, "America needs a superhero," and promoting a card that depicts him in a pose
similar to that of Superman, ripping off a shirt to reveal a superhero costume. The idea that the
former president could one day be cast in the role of Superman has long held his interest. At the
celebration of Trump's 50th birthday, a cake decorated with a skyline featured a cutout of a
figure resembling Superman with Trump's head attached to the body.

More recently, during the 2020 election cycle, when Trump was recuperating from the
coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he told aides he wanted to be
brought out of the hospital in a wheelchair, wearing a Superman T-shirt underneath his white
dress shirt, with the intention of standing up and ripping the dress shirt open. However,
fortunately, or unfortunately, aides were able to dissuade him from doing it, and Trump's former
chief of staff, Mark Meadows, used several lines in his memoir about his time in the White
House to falsely claim that Trump had never desired something of this nature.

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