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Still looking for the perfect gift for the digital-first nascent authoritarian in your life? The NFT collector who has it all (but also, kind of technically speaking, not)?
Well, as former president Donald Trump announced on Truth Social today, he’s back with another line of his “Trump Digital Trading Cards”—and this time they come with a little something extra.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
To be clear, these “cards” are not actual cards, but NFTs—or, as collecttrumpcards.com breaks it down for prospective buyers: “Just Like Baseball Cards, But You Collect Them Digitally!” This is the latest wave of Trump’s NFT output, following a launch last December that quickly sold out. That last launch was (naturally) not without controversy, including claims that the art—Trump as svelte cowboy, Trump as hypermasculine duck hunter, Trump as oddly spectacled fighter pilot—ripped off copyrighted images.
The new “MugShot Edition” set glorifies Trump’s racketeering booking photo in Georgia by applying various visual interpretations of it: Trump wielding lightning, a Trump doing Mortal Kombat cosplay with two swords strapped to his back, a Lincoln-Memorial–esque Trump sitting atop a stone throne, and just too many others.
But despite all that, I’m somehow burying the lede: If you buy 47 of the $99 cards, someone will cut a piece off the actual suit and tie that Trump wore in his mug shot and mail it to you. Oh, and you also get to have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
![selling a piece of his mug shot suit 1 selling a piece of his mug shot suit](https://i0.wp.com/images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_auto:best/wp-cms/uploads/2023/12/i-2-90997053-trump-nft-trading-card-scheme.jpg?resize=640%2C320&ssl=1)
[Screenshot: FC]
If you do the math, a piece of the suit will run you $4,653 (plus fees). It’s unclear how big a snippet you’ll get for the price, but if all goes according to Trump’s plan, the suit will eventually be cut into 2,024 pieces.
NFT International LLC, and not Trump, owns the project—but he still makes a nice chunk of change from it, which is undoubtedly why he happily promotes it; and why, at least in theory, he happily turned that suit over to be diced up. Collecttrumpcards.com notes that the suit was authenticated by MEARS (Memorabilia Evaluation & Research Services), which apparently called it, “the most historically significant artifact in United States history.” Their words, not ours, but we can acknowledge that it’s a fascinatingly sordid piece of history to be selling off in the most unreliable marketplace in recent memory.
As with anything Trump- and NFT-related . . . buyer beware! In addition to the usual challenges of the chaotic Web3 marketplace, the cards have recently made news for tanking in value.
But hey—as collecttrumpcards.com points out, the cards “are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment purposes.” Moreover, “These Digital Trading Cards are not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign.”
Right . . . .
We’ve reached out to MEARS and collecttrumpcards.com to inquire about the design of the cards (as well as whether or not the suit was, ahem, dry-cleaned first), and will follow up accordingly.
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