Former President Donald Trump revealed Thursday that the “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” that he teased earlier in the week — which some of his supporters thought could be anything ranging from his announcing a bid for House Speaker to announcing who he would want to be his VP pick should he win the GOP primary — was a series of digital trading cards.
“I’m doing my first official Donald J. Trump NFT collection right here and right now; they’re called Trump Digital Trading Cards,” Trump said in a promotional video. “Here’s one of the best parts: Each card comes with an automatic chance to win amazing prizes like dinner with me. I don’t know if that’s an amazing prize, but it’s what we have.”
Trump said that if you buy one of his digital trading cards, you will “join a very exclusive community.”
The problem with NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are pieces of digital art that are supposed to be unique, is that NFTs have collapsed in value in recent months in large part due to cryptocurrencies taking a massive hit over the last year, a trend that has been accelerated by the collapse of FTX.
Compounding those problems were the designs of Trump’s digital cards, which many of his own supporters criticized. His supporters, and others, also criticized the overall decision to launch the initiative.
The following are some notable responses from conservatives:
- Jesse Kelly, radio host: “Trump teasing a ‘major announcement’ and then labeling his NFT ‘major announcement’ only to have his hardcore fans act like that wasn’t the real announcement is the perfect example what this thing has become. Demand improvement. Put the pom poms down. We need a better Trump.”
- John Cardillo, political commentator: “I supported Trump for years but this is ridiculous. Pushing a worthless NFT for $99 a week before Christmas on the heels of the #FTX collapse is beyond wrong. Calling it a ‘MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT’ is just weird. Who advised him to do this?”
- Luke Rudkowski, political commentator: “Hey guys, are you dealing with real life problems like the crashing of the economy the fear of nuclear war the destruction of our mental & physical health that has been deteriorating b/c of direct government intervention. DON’T WORRY just buy a Trump NFT!”
- Daniel Bostic, political commentator: “If this is the #MAJORANNOUNCEMENT it is embarrassing and a slap in the face to Trump’s base. People are struggling and losing their country. They’re begging for real action – not childish stunts like this.”
- Steve Deace, podcast host: “DeSantis out here launching grand juries, while Trump be out here selling trading cards. Come on, man.”
- Bryson Gray, political commentator: “Trump’s major announcement was about digital trading cards. Can we be honest about that being a let down?”
- John Nolte, Breitbart columnist: “Anyone dumb enough to buy “”””digital””” trading cards should probably wear a helmet and never procreate.”
- Hodgetwins, political commentators: “Man…when all Patriots are looking for is hope for the future of our country and Trump hypes everybody up with a ‘BIG ANNOUNCEMENT’. Then drops a low quality NFT collection video as the ‘announcement’, it just pushes people away…Damn.”
- Caleb Hull, digital strategist: “Whoever thought this was a good idea needs to be fired.”
- Kingsley Cortes, former Trump campaign: “I regret to inform you that we are so not back.”