After teasing a “major announcement” on Wednesday, 2024 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump followed up with a statement the next day about a collection of non-fungible tokens bearing his likeness.
Comparing the collectible images to baseball cards, he encouraged supporters to shell out $99 each to own one of the various digital files.
Although critics were quick to denounce and disparage his plan, it was clear that plenty of Trump fans were anxious to make their purchases. Reports indicate that all 45,000 first-run NFTs had been sold by Friday and the cards shot to the top of the most popular items on the OpenSea platform.
As Trump explained, buyers would not only receive a digital image but would also be entered into drawings to possibly receive various exclusive perks.
He went on to say that those who purchase an image could win a dinner with him in Miami, autographed memorabilia, one-on-one video calls, and other prizes.
“Would make a great Christmas gift,” Trump advised. “Don’t wait, they will be gone, I believe very quickly.”
He appears to have reconsidered his prior skepticism of digital assets after tweeting more than three years ago that he was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.”
Whichever White House staffer operates President Joe Biden’s Twitter account could not help mocking the latest Trump news.
I had some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS the last couple of weeks, too…
✔️ Inflation’s easing
✔️ I just signed the Respect for Marriage Act
✔️ We brought Brittney Griner home
✔️ Gas prices are lower than a year ago
✔️ 10,000 new high-paying jobs in Arizona— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 15, 2022
Even a few of the former president’s long-time allies found the announcement anticlimactic, if not embarrassing.
“I can’t watch it again,” said former Trump adviser Steve Bannon of Trump’s video. “Make it stop. Anybody on the [communications] team and anybody at Mar-A-Lago — and I love the folks down there — but we’re at war. They ought to be fired today.”
Nevertheless, the numbers speak for themselves. According to CoinDesk, the “floor price” of the Trump NFTs was more than double the $99 asking price with some rare cards trading for as much as $24,000.
