“This is Donald Trump. Hopefully your favorite President of all time. Better than Lincoln, better than Washington, with an important announcement..."
It’s hard to know where to start, so we’ll start here: the post on former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account right below the “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!” of his new superhero-themed NFT collection is the results of a poll asking, “would you support or oppose him for the Republican nomination” if he ran again in 2024.
The poll of 480 Republicans, he said, found 77% supporting a new Trump Presidential campaign, and 19% opposing him.
The Trump NFT collection is for sale on CollectTrumpCards.com, which features an unusual video announcement. Opening with an image of Trump in the classic Superman pose, he tears open a suit front to reveal a red costume with a T logo underneath — and heat-ray eyes, natch — the now gray-haired ex-President says:
“Hello everyone, this is Donald Trump. Hopefully your favorite President of all time. Better than Lincoln, better than Washington, with an important announcement to make. I’m doing my first official Donald Trump NFT collection right here and right now.”
The $99 NFTs come with perks like a drawing to win a meet-and-greet, group Zoom call, signed merchandise and the like, as well as a “GUARANTEED” ticket to a dinner with “45” for anyone who buys at least 45 of the NFTs.
The collection has 45,000 NFTs minted on Polygon.
Among the selections are NASCAR Trump, Astronaut Trump, Wild West Marshal Trump, Football Coach Trump, Shotgun-Totin’ Rancher Trump and many, many more.
The ex-President is facing a period of legal peril, with the January 6 Committee set to recommend charges in a final report on Dec. 19. Several members of the committee have said charges are forthcoming against Trump, USA Today reported.
Crypto or Kryponite?
Crypto Twitter’s reaction has largely been a collective jaw-drop.
Influential crypto trader Scott Melker — who has his own Twitter alter ego as The Wolf of All Streets — said:
“I have so many questions and comments but really just in disbelief and confused and hope it all goes to zero post haste so we can start again.”
Coming a month to the day after Trump announced a re-election campaign that has gotten less-than-enthusiastic sport from GOP leaders, the “major announcement” is not the first First Family foray into NFTs.
The launch comes just shy of one year to the day after ex-First Lady Melania Trump launched a Solana blockchain-minted NFT as her first public post-White House endeavor. The NFT sold for 1,800 SOL — then about $185,000 — and received more than a little attention after blockchain sleuths discovered that she bought it herself, as the payment came from the account that minted the NFT.
A spokesperson told Rolling Stone the purchase was on behalf of another buyer.
The ex-President’s new NFT collection also marks a substantial change in Trump’s opinion of cryptocurrencies broadly, which he first revealed on Twitter in the wake of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin project announcement on July 11, 2019.
The then President said:
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….”
Crypto fan and Twitter owner Elon Musk recently announced the replatforming of Twitter-banned Trump, who seems to be happy sticking to Twitter clone Truth Social, having not tweeted once since his reinstatement.
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